


Poly Spies and the Kidnapping Mystery

by velvetjinx



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, Danger, Fluff, I blame CAPRBB slack chat, Kidnapping, Minor Pepper Potts/Tony Stark, Multi, Mystery, Off Screen Violence, Past Torture, Private Investigators, Smut, Threesome - F/M/M, background Sam wilson/Natasha romanoff - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-05
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-18 18:42:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 34,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14219376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/velvetjinx/pseuds/velvetjinx
Summary: The PIs at Poly Spies are approached by an old friend of Steve’s to find the people responsible for kidnapping his girlfriend. But the case is much more complicated than it first appears, and soon the PIs find themselves in more danger than they could ever have imagined.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [umetnica](https://archiveofourown.org/users/umetnica/gifts).



> OH MY GOD okay so first thanks be to umetnica/Elle for being amazing and saying, quite offhandedly one day in the group chat, how funny it would be if there was a company called Poly Spies who always got calls for Polly’s Pies. Thus this fic was born. 
> 
> A million cookies and thanks to my beta, SMDarling, who was amazing. I LIVED for your comments, bb. <3
> 
> Thanks also to the folks who preread it and assured me it didn’t suck, namely Ria, Kate, and the wonderful vellities. Cookies for you too. 
> 
> This fic is complete and will post a chapter a day.

_That’s the fifth phone call today for ‘Polly’s Pies’,_ Bucky typed furiously into an email, and hit send. He sat back and looked around his office. It was probably time for a clear out, given that he could barely see his desk—or the top of the decorative wooden chest under the window—for piles of paper. It was kind of exactly how you’d expect a private investigator’s office to look; an old, scarred wooden desk, leather chairs that didn’t look comfortable but actually were, posters of old movies on the walls, and a couple of old metal filing cabinets. Since his office was the biggest, they kept all their case files in there.

Bucky loved his office.

A moment later, his computer dinged with a reply. _I knew this was a dumb name._

Bucky grinned. Peggy had always hated their name, ‘Poly Spies’. He personally thought it was inspired. He typed back, _It’s a great name, shut up. Anyway, they’re probably just confused because we’re a_ PI _company. (Get it?)_

_I can’t believe I know you._

_If you’re both done flirting over email,_ came the reply from Steve, and Bucky could practically hear his dry tones, _then maybe we can get some work done? You both have reports due from your last cases._

 _Who made you the boss of me?_ Bucky wrote, and immediately received identical messages back from both Steve and Peggy.

_You did._

_Oh yeah, blame me. If I recall correctly, it was a joint decision. Made jointly._

_And whose idea was it initially?_ Peggy wrote. _Oh yes, I believe it was you who said “Let’s make Steve the boss since it’s the only place he will be”._

_Heh. True though._

He heard a door open, and Steve yelled from the hallway, “You’re both assholes!”

“You love us!” Bucky hollered back, grinning.

Steve’s door closed, not a slam, but hard enough for Bucky to know he was trying to make a point.

Bucky’s stomach rumbled and he looked down, then at the clock on his computer—lunchtime. He went through to Peggy’s office, not bothering to knock, and sat on the corner of her desk. Peggy ignored him, continuing to type away. Probably doing her case report.

Peggy’s office was the antithesis of his. No paper anywhere, except what she was working on right at that moment. A nicely varnished wooden desk, no scarring to speak of. Comfortable looking chairs. A couple of little wooden tables with plants on top. The posters on her walls were of different pieces of art—a Pre-Raphaelite here, a Gaughan there.

“So. Lunch?” Bucky asked casually, stretching his arms above his head and grinning when Peggy couldn’t help but glance at the strip of skin the movement bared.

“Why don’t you run out and get something?” Peggy asked, eyes going back to her screen.

Bucky’s shoulders slumped. “We really need an office lackey. Someone who can file our stuff and write our reports and get us lunch. And run reception! Then Steve could work more cases.”

“It might not be a terrible idea,” Peggy murmured. “We are getting busier.”

Bucky’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. “Did you just… did you just agree that I had a good idea?”

“Don’t get used to it. We should definitely talk to Steve about it, though. In the meantime, you should go get us lunch.”

Bucky sighed. “Fine. What do you want?”

“I sort of want a lobster roll from Luke’s Lobster.”

“Fine, okay. I’ll go see what Steve wants.”

Steve wanted something a bit more meaty, so Bucky headed out into the neighborhood to hunt down food. 

Having their office in the East Village had many perks, but the main one was the local flavor. So many different sandwiches to choose from. Bucky was almost certain he’d had the best the nearby sandwich places had to offer, but he was always on the lookout for something new.

When he got back to the office, there was no-one at the front desk. Bucky’s brow furrowed as he went into the back hallway, and found Steve in Peggy’s office.

“Oh, good, so we can all eat lunch together today,” Bucky said with a grin, handing out the sandwiches. 

“I guess so,” Steve replied, smiling. “So Peggy says you think we should get an ‘office lackey’?”

Bucky shot Peggy a glare. Peggy smirked. “I just think it would be a good idea to get someone on reception full time,” Bucky said patiently. “We’ve got that extra office we’ve been using for storage, and you could take on more cases. You know we’ve been turning people down because Peggy and I just don’t have the time.”

Steve nodded. “I know. And I think it’s a good idea.” He paused. “Let’s call them an ‘office assistant’, though, rather than ‘lackey’.”

Bucky waved his hand dismissively. “Pff, semantics. My point is, we need someone on reception to do all the jobs we don’t have the time to do. And the jobs we just don’t want to do.”

“You’re so lazy,” Peggy said, smiling indulgently.

“I’m not lazy, I just like to delegate.” 

“Whatever you want to call it.”

“So,” Steve said quickly, as if to nip their good natured arguing in the bud, “we’ll put an ad in the paper for someone.”

“Can we get a leggy blonde? Ow!” Bucky yelped as Peggy smacked him on the leg.

“Steve isn’t enough leggy blond for you already?”

Steve rolled his eyes. “Children. I work with children.”

Bucky stood, crowding into Steve’s space. “You love us,” he murmured, pulling Steve into a deep kiss. As Steve kissed back, Bucky felt and heard Peggy behind him. He pulled back from Steve and turned, drawing Peggy in and kissing her. She smelled like the floral perfume she’d put on that morning, and it was so very Peggy that it made Bucky moan.

Steve cleared his throat and Bucky looked over his shoulder at him. “Did you want something?”

Smirking, Steve stalked around Bucky, grabbing hold of Peggy’s waist and kissing her, hard enough he could see Peggy’s knees almost buckle.

“So, uh,” Bucky began, licking his lips.”I know we have some stupid rules about no sex in the office, but—”

“And that rule stands,” Steve interrupted, and Bucky sighed.

“Fine, but if I go back to my office and jerk off at my desk it’s your fault.”

Steve’s eyes went dark, and Bucky hid a smirk, his cock stirring. 

“You know,” he said, idly picking at some imaginary lint on his shirt, “my pants feel awfully… _tight_ today.”

He watched as Steve’s gaze flickered down to his crotch, taking in his hardening cock, then back up to his face. “What do you suggest we do about that?” Steve asked huskily.

Bucky waited a moment, then drew his hand down his chest, aware that both Steve and Peggy were tracking the movement. When his hand pressed lightly against his cock, he let out a small gasp.

Steve was immediately on his knees at Bucky’s feet, nuzzling at his cock through his pants. Then Steve’s hands were on Bucky’s belt, unbuckling it hurriedly before attacking his fly. Peggy pulled Bucky into a kiss as Steve pulled down Bucky’s pants and boxers in one go, finally getting his mouth on Bucky’s cock. Bucky moaned into the kiss and felt Peggy reach down to play with his balls. 

Bucky pulled back, gasping. “Fuck, not gonna last long,” he managed.

“Good, that’s good, baby,” Peggy crooned. “Steve wants you to come in his mouth, don’t you, Steve?”

Steve nodded around his mouthful, and Bucky could feel his orgasm building as his lovers drove him towards the edge. Steve gave a sudden firm suck at the head of Bucky’s cock and Bucky came with a cry. Steve swallowed then smirked up at Bucky. 

“Feel better?” he asked with a grin, and Bucky hauled him to his feet and kissed him, moaning at the taste of himself in Steve’s mouth.

Peggy tapped him on the shoulder and he turned to her, kissing her deeply. As they kissed, he slid his hand up her thigh under her pleated skirt, gasping when he reached her hip.

“No panties?” he murmured, and she smirked.

“It was going to be a surprise for later, but now you know, what are you going to do about it?”

“I’m gonna make you come while you stroke Steve, how does that sound?”

Peggy nodded, and Bucky got to his knees in front of her, bunching her skirt into the waistband while she worked on Steve’s pants. Bucky waited until Peggy had begun to stroke Steve before burying his face in her pussy, lapping at her clit with long licks. She spread her legs slightly, and Bucky tiptoed his fingers up her thigh before pressing two inside her.

He looked up to see his lovers kissing passionately, and the sight made his chest swoop. He could see Steve’s cock, hard and leaking at the tip, flushed a gorgeous deep rosy pink. God, but Bucky loved Steve’s cock.

But he had a different focus at that moment, and concentrated on what he was doing, rubbing his tongue hard against Peggy’s clit as he fingered her. Her hips were moving slightly as he ate her out; she was so wet she was dripping down his hand. He pressed his tongue against her harder, rubbing his fingers against her g spot, and she broke the kiss with Steve as she came with a high sound, cunt clenching around Bucky’s fingers. He pulled his fingers out of her and licked one, before standing and pressing the other to Steve’s lips. Steve licked the finger hungrily, and Bucky got back on his knees, lapping at Steve’s balls. 

“Come on, Steve, baby. Come on my face,” Bucky told him, and Steve let out a groan as he came hard, Peggy milking his cock. Bucky just managed to close his eyes in time as streaks of spunk covered his face. 

Bucky wiped a drop of come off his eyelashes and opened his eyes, grinning up at Steve. Steve grabbed hold of his arms and pulled him to his feet, dragging both him and Peggy in for a three way kiss.

When they finally broke apart, panting, Steve smirked at Bucky. “You need to go get cleaned up in case we get a client,” he said with a laugh. “Your face is a mess.”

“Yeah, but it’s _your_ mess,” Bucky retorted, and Steve gave him a hungry look.

When they were all clean and presentable again, Bucky returned to Peggy’s office, where Steve was looking over her shoulder at something on her computer screen.

“Whatcha looking at?”

Steve glanced up at him. “We’re trying to figure out how to word this advertisement for an office assistant so that we don’t get any crime obsessed weirdos.”

“That’s simple,” Bucky said, lazily scratching his stomach through his shirt. “Say in the ad ‘no crime obsessed weirdos’.”

“You’re not helping,” Steve said, rolling his eyes.

“I take it there’s nothing in there about a leggy blonde either.”

Steve gave him a long-suffering look and Bucky grinned. “How about this,” Steve said. “‘Help wanted: office assistant for local private investigator company. Must be organized and able to use basic office programs. Experience in other PI agencies a plus. Applications to Steve Rogers, Poly Spies, address blah blah, inquire for salary’.”

“Sounds good to me,” Peggy replied, typing furiously. “Okay, where do you want it?”

“I’ll leave that in your capable hands. The usual rags.” Steve kissed her on the cheek, and stood up straight. “And I had better get back to the front desk in case we get any walk-ins. You finished your case files yet?”

Peggy nodded, and Bucky looked sheepish. “I’ve started them, does that count?”

Steve sighed. “Get it done by the end of the day, Buck!” he called over his shoulder as he left Peggy’s office. Bucky frowned and went back to his own office, sitting in his chair and staring at the computer screen. He loved the investigative part of being a PI, but he really hated all the paperwork.

At any rate, soon they’d have someone to help with that.


	2. Chapter 2

They interviewed three people the first day, four the second. None of them seemed to know their way around a computer, or be able to use their intuition.

Meanwhile, they were trying to get Steve’s new office kitted out for him to work in. It was easier said than done as they were on the third floor of a block above a Chinese restaurant, so getting stuff delivered was a pain in the ass. But slowly, surely, they were getting there.

On the third day, they interviewed two people, both of whom were promising, then broke for lunch. They had one final candidate coming in that afternoon. His resumé was good, and his name was apparently ‘Thor Odinson’. 

When he walked in, Bucky could barely hide his smirk. The guy was tall, with shoulder length blond hair. If he was good enough, looked like Bucky would be getting his leggy blond after all. As if she could hear his thoughts, Peggy elbowed him lightly in the ribs. He gave her an injured look, and frowned at her. He could totally behave.

The guy shook their hands, then sat down on the chair opposite. 

“So, Mr Odinson, looks like you’ve got a solid resumé. Can you tell us a little bit more about your experience?” Steve asked.

The guy nodded. “Of course!” he said, and Bucky was surprised to hear an English accent. “Well, I started out after university temping in various offices. I then moved to the states when I got a job working in the back office in Bloomingdales—working on their admin, some bits of accounting, purchase orders, that kind of thing. I worked there for three years, but it wasn’t a particularly interesting job so I went looking for a new opportunity. I ended up working at the local police station, processing reports and expenses, where I’ve worked up until now.”

“And what made you decide to apply for the position here?” Peggy asked.

The guy blushed. “So, um, I always used to watch these old movies with my parents about private investigators back in the day, and I just thought it would be an interesting opportunity. Don’t worry!” he added hurriedly. “I’m not one of those people who’s weirdly obsessed with crimes and stuff. I just thought that working in an office like this would be kind of cool.”

Bucky hid a grin. “So your duties would be filing, assisting with reports, taking calls and dealing with walk-ins, as well as keeping an eye on our schedules. Do you think you can do that?”

“Of course!” the guy replied. “I’m very organized, and am familiar with using various software. What program do you use for email?”

“Outlook.”

“Then that’s fine. I’m very familiar with Outlook. I also learn quickly, so any new software you want to train me on you can be sure I’ll pick it up fast enough.”

“That’s great,” Peggy said, smiling. “Do you have any questions for us?”

“Sure! Uh, your name is quite unusual? Where did that come from?”

Bucky smirked. “The three of us are in a relationship. We are the poly spies.”

“Oh!” The guy blushed. “I didn’t realize.”

“Is that going to be a problem?” Steve asked, gaze piercing.

“No, not at all. It’s just unusual for people to be so open about it. But that’s really great that you are.”

Steve nodded. “Well, thank you very much, Mr Odinson. We’ll be in touch.”

They shook hands again, and the guy left. The three of them looked at each other, nodding. No contest—that guy was definitely the one.

***

Steve called him the next day to give him the news, and asked him when he could start. Bucky watched Steve as he nodded at whatever the guy was saying. 

“That’s great,” Steve said warmly. “We’ll see you next Monday, then. Bye!” He hung up the phone and smiled at Bucky. “We have ourselves a new receptionist. As soon as we’ve got the paperwork back from him, anyway.”

“And subject to his references being legit,” Bucky said quietly.

Steve looked at Bucky curiously. “You don’t think they will be?”

Bucky shrugged. “You never know. I just think it’s always best to check, especially in our line of work.”

“True.” Steve got up and walked over to Bucky, wrapping his arms around Bucky’s waist. “It’s gonna be great. I’ll be able to work more cases, we won’t have as much paperwork to do… this was a great idea, Buck.”

Bucky kissed him softly. “I know. But it’s nice to hear you say it.”

“Yeah.” Steve kissed him again. “God, I love you.”

“I love you too.”

They smiled at each other, and Bucky’s heart leapt. Life was pretty perfect.

***

Steve’s office was finally ready, and Bucky and Peggy were allowed in to look. Steve had been oddly evasive about letting them into his office when he was still decorating, and Bucky was burning with curiosity. 

When he walked in, Bucky gasped. It was open, modern, and looked like the kind of office you’d find at a magazine place or an interior decorator’s. The walls were magnolia with posters of modern art dotted here and there; the desk was modern with hydraulics built in so Steve could sit or stand at it; the chairs were fancy and plush, in loud colors that made Bucky’s eyes hurt, and there was a corner sofa covered in weirdly patterned cushions.

“Why do you have a sofa in your office?” Bucky asked. Steve grinned darkly at him.

They christened the sofa that same day.

***

The new guy started the following Monday—his references had checked out, along with the background check—and Steve was training him. He was a pretty friendly guy, telling them all just to call him Thor, which Bucky had assumed to be a nickname but according to his ID really was his name.

Although it had fallen to Steve to train him, since Steve was the one who had been working on reception, Thor had to learn a little about the business. So, on his second day, Bucky called Thor through to his office. 

“So how’s it going so far?” Bucky asked, as Thor sat in the seat opposite him.

“Good so far, I think?” Thor replied. “I’ve learned the phone system, and I’m all set up with my own email account as well as the main reception account. I think Steve is going to show me the filing system later?”

“Awesome. So how much has Steve told you about the business?”

Thor looked thoughtful. “He’s given me a pretty comprehensive overview of what you do, and the kind of cases you take.”

“Cool. So basically, we take most cases, but in the case of suspected cheating we don’t set honey traps because that’s just not cool. Besides, the three of us are irresistible so even the strongest willed husband or wife wouldn’t be able to turn down our charms.” Bucky saw Thor hide a grin and raised his eyebrow. “You disagree?”

“No, no, of course not,” Thor said soothingly, in a way where Bucky knew he meant the opposite.

“It’s actually kind of a problem. Peggy especially tends to get hit on a lot.”

“And what, that makes you guys mad?”

Bucky snorted. “Nah, Peggy can handle herself. That’s kinda the problem. When some entitled mouth breather hits on her in a gross way, she’s as likely to do them an injury as she is to humiliate them verbally. And if they get handsy… oh boy.”

“She sounds like quite the lady,” Thor said with a grin, and Bucky nodded. 

“She really, really is.” Bucky cleared his throat. “So, anyway, we try not to take on anything too dangerous—we’re pretty good at the whole self-preservation thing—but once or twice a simple case has turned out to be not quite so simple. In the event of that happening, everyone has to check in once an hour, just to make sure they’re still, you know. Plus they have to let the team know if they’re changing locations.”

“Will I be coordinating that?”

Bucky shook his head. “No, each check-in goes to the whole team. For safety’s sake, you know?”

“Sensible,” Thor murmured.

“Yeah, it’s saved our asses a couple of times.” Bucky stretched his arms over his head, yawning. “God, sorry. Didn’t sleep great last night.”

“You okay?”

“Yeah, I think it’s just the changing seasons.” The leaves were starting to turn, and there was a slight chill in the air. Fall was definitely on its way. “It always fucks up my sleeping pattern. Anyway, how are you at typing up case reports?”

Thor grinned. “Steve told me you’d ask that, and he also told me to tell you to fuck off and do your own.”

“What? I am mortally offended. How dare. Besides, he’s gonna be as bad if not worse than me when he’s got more case reports to type up. He hates those things.”

Thor nodded, then frowned. “Uh, also, Steve said you get a lot of wrong numbers?”

“Oh, yeah.” Bucky chuckled. “Someone at directory assistance can’t tell the difference between people saying ‘Polly’s Pies’ and ‘Poly Spies’ so we’re always getting calls trying to order pies.”

“Oh my god, that’s hilarious,” Thor said, laughing. 

“Yeah. I’ve got the right number somewhere; I’ll email it to you so you can give it out fifty times a day.”

“Thanks.” Thor grinned at him. “So Steve tells me that basically what I need to do when I get a call is just patch it through to whoever is free?”

“Pretty much, yeah. If there’s no one free, just take a message and one of us will call them back. It’s just easier than you trying to schedule everything, which we tried before and just doesn’t work. We each know our own caseload, and what we can and can’t take on with the time available.”

“Excellent.” Thor scribbled some notes down onto his notepad. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“I don’t think so. Oh, except always knock. Rule number one.”

“Of course,” Thor said, looking slightly scandalized. “That’s only polite.”

“Polite whatever, it’s so you don’t get an eyeful if we’re having a nooner,” Bucky said with a laugh, and Thor blushed. “Not that we do that often—Steve has rules about sex in the office, during office hours—but that doesn’t say that we don’t break those rules if we want to. So basically, always knock, and if no one replies, walk away and try again later.”

“Duly noted,” Thor said dryly, still blushing. “It must be nice, working with your partners.”

Bucky nodded. “Yeah, it’s pretty great. I mean, like I say, sometimes it’s pretty dangerous, and then I get worried, but usually it’s great. I get to see them all the time, I get to bother them a lot, I get to kiss them whenever I want during the day.” He smiled softly. “What about you? Got a significant other out there?”

“Yeah,” Thor replied with a lopsided smile. “Her name is Jane, and she’s a physicist.”

“Oh, cool! You should bring her in to meet us some day.”

“She’d like that.” Thor looked at his watch. “Okay, it’s almost lunch time. What do you want today?”

“I’ll have a Pops Pastrami Sandwich from Harry and Ida’s today, I think. Yeah, that sounds really good.”

“Got it.” Thor grinned at him. “Back in a little while.”

Thor left, and Bucky stretched again, grinning. It felt good to not have to do the lunch run any more. And Thor seemed like a really good guy.

They all ate together on the sofa in Steve’s office—none of them mentioning to Thor exactly what had gone down on that sofa, although the way he sat gingerly on the edge made Bucky think he might have an idea—and chatted about inconsequential things until it was time to go back to work. 

Bucky went through to reception to ask Steve a question, as he was still in there training Thor, when there was a knock on the front door. 

Thor held up a finger and grinned, then hit the intercom. “Can I help you?” he asked, tone polite. 

“Tony Stark to see Steve Rogers?”

Bucky looked at Steve, who had gone slightly pale. 

“Is he expecting you?” Thor asked, in a tone which implied he had seen Steve’s expression too.

“No, but he knows me.”

Bucky blinked. Steve knew Tony Stark? Tony Stark, the billionaire? 

Steve nodded at Thor, before escaping back to his own office. Bucky followed him, unable to stop staring.

“How the hell do you know Tony Stark?” Bucky asked, awed.

“That’s a really long story.” Steve sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I’ll tell you later, but can you just… can I meet him alone? I want to know what he’s doing here.”

“Sure, of course,” Bucky said stiffly, and Steve pulled him into a kiss. 

“I promise I’ll explain everything. This is just something I’ve gotta do on my own. Don’t be mad?”

Bucky felt himself melt under Steve’s pleading gaze. “Yeah, okay. I’ll see you later.”

Instead of going to his own office, however, he went through to Peggy’s.

“Peggy! You’re not gonna believe this, but Tony Stark is here and apparently he and Steve know each other?” he said in a rush.

Peggy stared at him. “Tony Stark? Tony Stark the billionaire? How could Steve possibly know him?”

“I don’t know, but he does! And Stark is here to see him, and god, Peggy, Steve was really twitchy.”

Before Peggy could reply, her phone rang, and she answered it on speaker.

“Hey, Peggy, is Bucky there with you?” Steve asked.

“Yeah,” Peggy replied.

“Good. Can you both please come into my office?”

“Sure, we’ll be right there.”

Peggy and Bucky exchanged a look, before heading through to Steve’s office. Bucky didn’t know what to expect, but he had the feeling it was going to be important.


	3. Chapter 3

Bucky tapped lightly on Steve’s door, opening it when he heard Steve call, “Come in!” from inside. Tony Stark was sitting on one of the chairs across from Steve, next to a woman with reddish blonde hair who Bucky recognized as Stark’s long-term girlfriend, Pepper Potts. They both stood, and shook hands with Bucky and Peggy, as Steve introduced them.

“Mr Stark here has a case he would like us to work on,” Steve said quietly, and Stark turned to him, expression sad.

“You can’t even call me Tony?”

Steve shrugged. “Tony, then. Either way, he wants us to work for him exclusively. I’ve already told him that I don’t think that’s a possibility right now but I wanted to hear your thoughts.”

Bucky and Peggy glanced at each other. Clearly they were being put in the middle of something here, and neither of them were particularly happy about it.

“I think maybe if Mr Stark and Ms Potts could wait in reception, we could discuss this further?” Peggy said, giving Steve an expressive look, and Steve sighed. 

“Okay. If you wouldn’t mind, we’ll have our receptionist show you back through when we’ve discussed this.”

Stark nodded, and he and Ms Potts left. Bucky watched to make sure they actually went into reception, before closing the door behind him.

“What the hell, Steve?” Bucky asked with a harsh laugh. “What’s your problem with this guy? He’s a billionaire. We could probably charge him enough for the three of us to live on for the rest of our lives and it would barely make a dent in his bank balance.”

“He’s an asshole,” Steve growled. “I’m not doing him any favors, and I’m especially not having all three of us running around at his beck and call.”

“Do you know why he wants to hire us?” Peggy asked.

Steve shook his head. “I didn’t let him get that far.”

Bucky sighed. “Look, I know we’re not exactly starving but we could definitely do with the money. And whatever your problem with Stark is, he’s come to us for help. Isn’t that what we do? Help people?”

“Yeah, I guess.” Steve frowned. “So you guys are happy to drop everything and take his case?”

Peggy shrugged. “You know this is always a slow month. In the run up to Thanksgiving everyone is too busy. It’s after Thanksgiving that we get all the my-husband-cheated-at-the-work-party calls.”

“Fine. I’ll call them back in and we’ll hear them out. I can’t imagine what he wants.” Steve leaned across his desk to grab the phone receiver. “Hey, Thor, it’s Steve. Will you please bring Mr Stark and Ms Potts back through to us? We’re in my office. Thanks.”

Bucky and Peggy grabbed a couple of chairs and pushed them to either side of Steve, so they looked more like a cohesive unit. When Stark and Ms Potts had sat down, the trio sat as well, and Steve sighed. 

“Okay, we’re gonna hear you out, although I’m not promising anything.”

Stark nodded. “Fair enough.” He cleared his throat. “Two months ago, we started getting threatening letters in the mail. Except we didn’t think they had really come in the mail—the postage mark looked faked. We figured it was a member of staff with a grudge. We ran background checks on all of them, but nothing came up.

“Two weeks ago, Pepper was out shopping at the grocery store when a black van pulled up in front of her and two men with masks got out and dragged her inside. That afternoon I received another letter—saying she’d been kidnapped and to await further instructions.” Stark swallowed hard. “It said if I involved the FBI or local police then she’d be killed immediately. So I waited. Eight p.m. I get a phone call. The voice was obviously disguised, and they demanded two million dollars for her safe return.”

“I take it you paid?” Bucky said quietly.

“Of course I paid! But after the drop off… they called again. Whoever it was… said the two million wasn’t enough. They wanted more, and I could hear her screaming in the background. They wanted another two million and I agreed.”

“So you paid, then what?”

“Two hours later, Pepper was picked up by a squad car, drugged and disoriented on the side of the highway. When they brought her home I discovered that she’d been whipped across her back.”

Bucky glanced briefly at Pepper, who was staring at the desk in front of her as though in deep concentration. He wondered why she wasn’t telling the story herself, then looked at her hands. They were systematically tearing a paper tissue into tiny pieces, but distractedly, as though she wasn’t aware of what her hands were doing.

“Did you file a police report?” Steve asked softly.

Stark shook his head. “After their threats? And what they did to her even though I paid? There was no way. But I still want these people brought to justice, which is where you come in. I figure you’re our best hope. Which is why I want you all on the case—working as many hours as you can. I need these people caught in case they decide they can use Pepper again next time they run out of cash. I can’t have her put through that again.”

Steve sighed. “Let me discuss this with my partners. This could be dangerous, so we’d charge a higher rate if we all agree.”

“Money is no object,” Stark told them, waving a hand dismissively. “Charge what you want. I’ll pay it. I just want these bastards caught.”

Bucky looked at Steve, who looked at both him and Peggy. Bucky and Peggy both nodded slightly, and Steve took a deep breath.

“Okay. We’ll take the case. Our price for this kind of case is a thousand dollars a day, plus a bonus five thousand if they’re put away.”

Stark laughed hoarsely. “Steve, I’ll pay you fifty thousand bonus if you catch those sons of bitches. Just make sure they can never do this again.”

“Okay.” Steve took a deep breath. “We need a list of every member of your staff, copies of the background checks you ran on them, and the letters you were sent. Also I know you took DNA samples, Tony.”

Stark looked surprised. “How did you know?”

“Because I know you. You’re thorough. You might not have planned on going to the cops, or the FBI, but you would have been thinking ahead.”

“Yeah, okay, I’ll get you the samples.” Stark looked pleadingly at them. “Catch these guys? Please?”

“We’ll do our best,” Steve reassured him, and Stark nodded.

“That’s all I ask.” He got up, and they all stood. “I’ll get everything sent over to you ASAP. Thank you all again.”

They all shook hands, and Stark and Pepper left. Steve collapsed back into his chair as soon as they were out the door, pinching the bridge of his nose. 

“So you wanna tell us now?” Peggy asked softly

Steve sighed. “I was a really sickly kid. So was Tony. My mom was his nurse, and his parents were there at the hospital so often that they became friends. So did Tony and I. He was older, but that just meant he knew better games. The hospital was like a second home to both of us, and Tony would come round to our apartment to play sometimes. Then one day he invites me to his house. Well. His mansion.” Steve’s mouth twisted. “He had a treehouse that was almost the size of our apartment. It didn’t make any difference to either of us—we were kids, you know? But then he got older, went to high school. By that time he’d outgrown his childhood weakness. He didn’t really care about his friend Steve any more. Then one day he just… stopped returning my calls. Ignored me if we passed in the street, or if we were with our parents and they stopped to talk. It was like I didn’t exist to him any more. By the time I got to high school he was in college—I outgrew my asthma too, got a growth spurt, joined the lacrosse team.” His expression tightened. “He didn’t even bother to come to my mom’s funeral. His parents were both there, but he didn’t care enough about the woman who looked after him when he was sick to pay his respects.”

Peggy lay her head on Steve’s shoulder, and Bucky gripped his hand. “That’s really awful,” Peggy said softly. “If you want us to not take this case then we’ll just call him up, tell him we’re too busy.”

Steve shook his head. “No. You’re right, we need the money. Besides, Pepper seems nice, and she didn’t deserve this to happen to her. I’m doing this for her, not for him.”

Bucky nuzzled Steve’s cheek until he turned, so Bucky could capture his lips in a deep kiss. “You’re a good guy, Steve,” Bucky murmured against him.

“Just… don’t ask me to forgive Tony right now, okay?”

“Of course.” 

Steve covered his face with his hands, and Bucky gave Peggy an expressive look over Steve’s bent head. This was certainly going to prove to be an interesting case.

***

They had all the paperwork ready to sign the following day, and Stark came back in to sign it. Steve was ‘busy’—although Bucky had the feeling it was just an excuse and he didn’t want to see Stark—so Bucky oversaw the signing of the paperwork. Stark, ever the businessman, read each document thoroughly before signing, and Bucky waited patiently until he was done. 

“By the way,” Stark said quietly when he was finished, “I want to thank you for taking on this case. I know that Steve probably wouldn’t have done it if it hadn’t been for you and your other partner—”

“That’s not strictly true,” Bucky interrupted. “But Steve isn’t doing this for you. He’s doing it for Pepper because none of us think that she deserves what she went through.”

“Oh.” Stark looked at Bucky, eyes wide. “Well, I don’t really care why you took the case, because you’re right. Pepper didn’t deserve what happened to her. And it’s for her that I wanted you to take the case.” Stark sighed. “I don’t care about the money. I’d have done anything to get her back. But for them to torture her like that?” 

Stark had started shaking and clenching his fists, and Bucky put a calming hand on his shoulder. “We know. And we’ll do our best to catch the people who did this. How soon can you get us the information we need?”

Stark let out a deep breath. “I can send you the background checks by email today. The DNA samples are here.” He took an envelope from an inside pocket and handed it to Bucky, before pausing. “If it looks too dangerous, get out,” he said softly. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, or your partners. Whatever Steve may think, I do still care about his wellbeing.”

Bucky nodded, mystified, as Stark gave him a wan smile and left. 

He took the DNA samples through to Steve’s office, smiling when he saw Steve, deep in thought, chewing the end of his pen before scribbling down some notes. As Bucky approached, Steve looked up and smiled.

“Hey, Buck.”

“Hey,” Bucky replied. “Got everything signed by Stark, and I have the DNA samples here.” He passed the envelope and paperwork to Steve, who looked through it all, face blank. “So, uh. How are you?”

Steve glanced down up at Bucky, then back down at the paperwork. “I’m fine,” he said flatly. “Why do you ask?”

“Maybe because I care about you and I know how you feel about Stark?”

Steve sighed. “Yeah, well, he’s a client now, so how I feel or don’t feel about him is moot.”

“Bullshit,” Bucky scoffed. “Of course it matters. If you can’t be objective then we might as well give all this back. Not to mention,” he added as Steve opened his mouth, “that I am genuinely worried about how working with Stark will affect you emotionally.”

Steve sat back in his chair, frowning. “I can be objective, here, Buck. I promise. Like I said, I’m doing this for Pepper because she’s the victim here. And as to how it’ll affect me…” Steve’s mouth twisted. “I think I’ll be fine. If anyone should be uncomfortable, it’s him, right? He’s the one who stopped caring.”

“He said that whatever you may think, he does still care about your wellbeing,” Bucky said softly.

Steve snorted. “That’s a bunch of crap, but whatever. Why would he care now, after all these years? He doesn’t need to butter me up. We’ve already agreed to take the case.”

“Yeah, just… be careful, okay? I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

“It won’t,” Steve replied, smiling gently. “We’re gonna solve the case, get our money, and go on vacation somewhere sunny with lots of beaches.”

Bucky strode over and kissed him. “Yeah, sounds good.”

He left Steve in his office and went back to his own, frowning. Maybe Steve had convinced himself that he was okay, but Bucky wasn’t sure. Only time would tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight change of plan—I am the most impatient person in the world so I’m gonna start posting two chapters a day instead of one. Chapter 4 will go up this evening, UK time.
> 
> Really hope you’re all enjoying it so far!


	4. Chapter 4

“First things first,” Steve said over lunch that afternoon. “We need to get that DNA sample sent off ASAP.”

Bucky swallowed his mouthful of meatball sub. “I’ll arrange for it to get picked up today.”

“I can do that,” Thor offered, and Bucky grinned at him over his sandwich.

“Thanks, man.”

“It’s what I’m here for,” Thor replied with a lopsided grin.

“Second order of business. Have we got those background checks through yet?”

“Mhm,” Peggy said, delicately wiping some mayo from the corner of her mouth with a serviette. “I’ll send them to you both ASAP.”

“Excellent. You had a chance to look at them yet?”

Peggy shook her head. “Not yet. I thought we could discuss that first. Are we all going to go through all of them? Or are we going to split them up?”

Steve frowned thoughtfully. “Good question. I think we should all read all of them first, see if any of us notice anything suspicious, then we can divide them up and look at them in more detail.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Bucky said around his mouthful. “So that’ll be the next two days’ work then.”

“Is there that much?”

“There’s a lot,” Peggy replied. “There’s not only the household staff, there’s everyone who works at Stark Industries as scientists too. That’s a lot of paperwork.”

“Do the scientists at Stark Industries have access to the residential part of the Tower?”

“I’ll check,” Bucky said, scribbling on a serviette with one of Peggy’s pens. 

“Do that. If none of them do, that’s going to at least narrow down our list of suspects.”

“And the amount of time we spend looking at our computer screens,” Bucky added, and Steve rolled his eyes.

“Yes, that too.” Steve popped the last bite of his sandwich into his mouth, chewing thoughtfully. 

“My bet is it was one of the household staff with a grudge,” Bucky said sagely.

“I don’t think so,” Peggy retorted. “This was too smoothly done. I think these guys are professionals. They’ve done this before and they’ll do it again.”

“Hopefully we catch them before they do,” Bucky said, mouth set in a grim line.

“You okay, Thor?” Peggy asked. “You’ve been very quiet.”

Thor looked up guiltily. “Uh, I was listening,” he said quickly, then sighed. “This is just a really, really good meatball sub.”

“Isn’t it the best?” Bucky enthused. “They get all the proportions of ingredients perfect, so you don’t get too much of one overpowering—”

Steve cleared his throat and Bucky closed his mouth with a snap. “Anyway,” Steve said after a moment’s pause, “we’ll have plenty to get on with over the next few days. I’ll get the DNA samples all boxed up, if you arrange for it to get picked up, Thor. Make sure it’s sent priority. It takes long enough as it is to get a result; we don’t want any unnecessary delays.”

Thor nodded. “Will do.”

When lunch was over and they were all back at their desks, Peggy sent the files to Bucky and Steve while Bucky called Stark.

_“Hello?”_

“Mr Stark? It’s Bucky Barnes. I just had a quick question for you.”

_“Shoot.”_

“Sure thing. It’s regarding the files you sent today. How many of Stark Industries’ employees—those not part of the household—have access to your home?”

There was a moment of silence as Stark thought about it. _“Not many. I’ll send you a list.”_

“Thanks, Mr Stark. Much appreciated. Second question, how possible would it be for someone without access to get in anyway?”

Stark laughed. _“They may be bright, but none of them are brighter than me, and I built my security system. Don’t worry. The list I send you will be all of them.”_

Bucky raised an eyebrow at the man’s ego, but said nothing about it, instead saying, “well, thank you again.”

_“No problem.”_

Bucky ended the call and laughed to himself, shaking his head. That guy was seriously full of himself.

A few moments later, the email came through with a list of three names. Bucky picked up the phone and dialed Peggy. 

“Hey, Peggy, could you grab Steve and come in here a sec?”

_“Of course. See you in a few.”_

Bucky hung up the phone and looked thoughtfully at the list.

When Steve and Peggy came in, Bucky beckoned them over. “These are the three Stark Industries employees who have access to the residential area. Stark, uh, assures me that no one else could possibly bypass his security.”

Steve rolled his eyes. “He always was pretty arrogant. We’ll see.” He looked at the list, frowning, before tapping the screen with his pen. “Scott Lang? Why do I know that name?”

Bucky grinned. “Exactly why I called you in here. There was a petty criminal by the name of Scott Lang, remember? A thief, although he also had a degree in electrical engineering. We caught him about eight years ago, not long after we opened our office.”

“That’s right!” Peggy snapped her fingers. “I remember him. He fancied himself as a bit of a Robin Hood character, robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Although in his case, he and his friends were the poor. He was a genius with security systems, though.”

“Can you pull up his background check?” Steve asked, and Bucky did so. 

“The dates are right for his degree,” Bucky said slowly, “and I’m pretty sure that was his date of birth, but there’s no mention of any criminal convictions. How long did he go away for?”

“Three years,” Steve replied. 

“And it says here he’s worked for Stark Industries for four years. So how the hell did he manage to wipe the record of his convictions?”

“We’ll make a note to discuss that with him when we talk to the staff,” Peggy said grimly. “It could be nothing, but it is suspicious. Although if he’s been there for four years, why kidnap Pepper now? Why not four years ago?”

“Maybe he was approached by someone who knew his background and threatened to tell Stark unless he helped them,” Steve mused. “He could have been told to deliver the letters, and check Pepper’s schedule to see when they’d be able to take her.”

Bucky scribbled some notes down on a notepad. “Well, that’s at least one avenue of inquiry,” he said. 

“Just remember not to get too hung up on it now,” Steve said. “We’ve gotta keep an open mind until we know all the facts.”

“Yes,” Peggy added. “This could just be a coincidence. Maybe he was just desperate for a job? Doesn’t he have a daughter?”

Steve’s eyes widened. “He does, and that could be another angle. Maybe they threatened his daughter.”

Bucky wrote down some more notes. “I think we should make it a priority to talk to Lang, but as you say, Steve, we need to keep an open mind at this early stage.” He frowned. “So there are only a handful of files to get through. We should probably start on them ASAP, because I would like to be able to sleep some time in the next week.”

Steve and Peggy laughed, and Peggy kissed the top of Bucky’s head. “We wouldn’t want you sleep deprived and grumpy,” she said, smiling indulgently. 

“Right?” Bucky looked at the clock. It was four thirty already. “Ugh, are we gonna be here all night?”

Steve shook his head. “We leave no later than seven. And no taking paperwork home. This case is a marathon, not a sprint. We gotta pace ourselves.” He sighed. “Okay. I’m gonna go start on these files. You two should probably do the same if we’re ever gonna get through them.”

Peggy and Bucky nodded in agreement, and Steve and Peggy went back to their offices. Bucky printed out each file and took the printouts back to his desk, stapling each file and piling them up haphazardly. Peggy would probably be organizing them in some kind of logical order, he thought fondly. She always did things like that. Drove him and Steve a little nuts when she organized their stuff, but she wouldn’t be Peggy if she didn’t.

Bucky picked up the top file and a pen, and began to read. Natasha Black, personal assistant to Tony Stark. Start date only three months ago. 

Only a month before the threatening letters started arriving.

Could it be a coincidence? It was unlikely that both her start date and Lang working there were both coincidences. But were they related? It was always possible that there could be more than one person infiltrating Stark’s life.

Bucky frowned and scribbled on Black’s file: _Possible suspect_. He read through the rest of the file. Her history seemed impeccable, aside from one minor joyriding misdemeanor from her early 20s. Bucky’s frown deepened. That was exactly the kind of thing you’d put in your history to seem like your background was real. 

Bucky definitely had his eye on this Natasha as a suspect. 

He scanned through her references, and wrote a quick note next to them to contact those references at some point. But he didn’t intend to call them. He intended to visit them.

Next up: Stark’s head of security, and by all accounts best friend, Colonel James Rhodes. Bucky looked at the file curiously. If Rhodes was Stark’s best friend, why was he running a background check? 

Rhodes’s file was spotless. Impressive military record. Never married. Worked at Stark Industries for eight years. No siblings. Both parents deceased. 

But why the background check?

Bucky moved onto the next file. Happy Hogan. Chauffeur, general dogsbody for Stark. It didn’t say that, of course, but Bucky got the feeling that was what he was. Worked at Stark Industries for twelve years, joined soon after Stark became CEO. Again, record spotless. A couple of minor jobs before he’d started with Stark Industries, but nothing for longer than a couple of years.

Stark Industries must treat their employees well, Bucky mused.

The next two files caught his eye—Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff, the other two scientists who had access to the Stark residence. Bucky’s immediate thought was that they were husband and wife, but as he scanned down Wanda’s file, it stated that she was unmarried but had a twin brother. Originally born in Sokovia, the twins had worked for Stark Industries as technical specialists for three years. Same start date, so they must have come as a package deal. Working in the US under a visa, which Stark must have sponsored. 

Bucky turned to his computer and looked up Sokovia on a map. Eastern Europe, small place. He did a quick web search, and read more in depth about the country. Not a huge population, fairly recent history of civil war… one side favored Stark Industries weapons? 

Stark Industries no longer made weapons, but in Tony Stark’s father Howard’s time, they had been pretty big in the whole industry. Howard Stark always said he was careful who he sold the weapons to, but these things could slip through the cracks. In the end, Tony Stark had decided he wanted to better humanity rather than help blow it up, and had shut down the weapons department. Which made Bucky wonder if anyone had been laid off at that point who would maybe hold a grudge?

He made another note to investigate that further.

Bucky stared at the twins’ files. Orphaned at a young age, they were raised by their great aunt, although apparently they weren’t in contact with her any more. And it looked as though they were orphaned at the height of the civil war…

A quick search brought up the information he was looking for. 

Their house had been bombed by the side using Stark Weapons. Both children survived, but the adults were killed. The twins had been trapped in the house with an unexploded bomb for two days.

If that wasn’t a motive for revenge, Bucky didn’t know what was. 

He sent a quick email to Steve and Peggy, asking them to come to his office. When they came in, they both looked surprised when they saw his solemn expression.

“You two should sit down,” he said, and they did, concern written all over their faces.

“What’s wrong?” Steve asked.

Bucky sighed. “I think I’ve found our prime suspects. Wanda and Pietro Maximoff, employees at Stark Industries, whose parents were killed by weapons made under Howard Stark.”

Peggy gasped. “You’re kidding!”

“I’m not. I don’t know how Stark missed this when he was getting their background check, but it happened. And now they’re working in his labs. And they have access to the residence. If anyone had a grudge, it’s these two.”

“We need to get to Stark right now,” Steve said grimly. “Bucky, you call ahead and tell him to change his security right now to make sure they can’t get into the residence. We’ll meet downstairs in five and head over there to talk to these two.”

“Wait,” Peggy said slowly. “Won’t that just tip them off? Maybe it’s best if it seems like he’s changing his security because of what happened to Pepper and no Stark Industries employees are allowed into the residence? Then that’ll ensure that Lang, since he’s still a suspect, can’t get to either of them too. Then we can interview the twins as routine with the rest of the staff so they don’t make a run for it before we’ve had a chance to talk to them.”

Steve thought for a moment, then nodded. “Good plan, Peggy. Okay, Buck, you heard the lady. Call Stark and tell him to restrict the residence to essential personnel only.”

Bucky nodded and picked up his phone, dialing Stark’s number. He didn’t mention their suspicions, only that they had concerns and that he should restrict access. 

_“Do you have a lead?”_ Stark asked.

“We have several, Mr Stark, which is why this is so broad,” Bucky lied. “But it’s imperative that you make sure only essential people can get into your residence for now. And try not to leave the building by yourself. Same goes for Ms Potts.”

_“Okay. Thanks for the heads up. You’ll let me know anything further?”_

“Of course, Mr Stark.” Bucky ended the call and took a deep breath. This case was turning out a little more complex than they’d initially thought.


	5. Chapter 5

Bucky skimmed through the remaining background check files, but nothing really flagged up as being strange or out of place, let alone suspicious. Ms Potts’s PA, Sam Wilson, an ex military guy with an exemplary record, who had worked there for three years. Christian Bonns, the maintenance guy, who dealt with the plumbing and other general maintenance, and was a father of two from Long Island. Length of service: one year. Security guard working under Colonel Rhodes, Clint Barton, whose hobbies included archery and who apparently had a slight caffeine addiction. The cleaning staff: Angela Smith, married mother of two, and Stacy White, her unmarried younger sister.

Bucky sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was starting to go a little stir crazy, and frankly just wanted to go home and have a hot shower followed by some hot sex. Or the sex first, Bucky wasn’t that fussy. 

There was a light knock at the door of his office, and a second later Steve came in. “Hey, how are you doing?” 

Bucky shrugged. “It’s fine, although I feel like my eyes are going square and my brain has turned to mush.”

Steve nodded. “Yeah, Peggy and I feel the same so we’re thinking we’re gonna call it a night. Besides, it’s 6.30–Thor has already gone home, and we all need a break.”

“Yeah.” Bucky locked the paperwork in the filing cabinet and switched off his computer, before grabbing his coat. “You guys nearly ready to go?”

“Yeah, I think Peggy’s just finishing something up.” Steve strode up to Bucky and pulled him into a kiss. “I’m looking forward to getting you both home.”

“Mmm, me too,” Bucky responded. “I’m thinking I wanna fuck you while you fuck Peggy, if you’re both up for that.”

Steve grabbed Bucky’s hand, pressing it against his cock, and Bucky’s eyes widened when he realized Steve was already half hard. “I’m very up for that,” Steve murmured. “And I’m pretty sure Peggy’s gonna like that idea too.”

Bucky kissed Steve again, moaning as the kiss deepened, until he heard Peggy clear her throat. He opened his eyes and pulled back, and Peggy grinned.

“If you boys are ready, how about we go home?”

Bucky laughed and put his arm around her waist. “Sounds good to me.”

***

The following day, Bucky was making additional notes on some of the files when the phone rang.

“Hello?”

_“Is this Poly Spies, the PI office?”_

“Yeah, this is Bucky Barnes speaking, who is this?”

_“This is Dr Banner from the laboratory. We were supposed to receive a package from you yesterday which contained DNA samples?”_

Bucky’s blood ran cold. “What do you mean, ‘supposed to’?”

_“I’m afraid we haven’t received the package. Are you sure it was sent?”_

“I should double check that our receptionist actually sent the package. Thank you for letting me know, Dr Banner.”

_“Not a problem, Mr Barnes.”_

Bucky hung up the phone and cursed, then strode through to reception. Thor looked up in surprise when Bucky practically burst through the door.

“Thor, did you send those DNA samples off like we asked?”

Thor’s eyes widened. “Yeah, of course!”

“Well they never arrived. Would you please contact the courier and see what’s wrong?”

Thor nodded and picked up the phone. “Hi, is this the FedEx office? My name is Thor Odinson, I work for the Poly Spies PI company. I arranged to have a parcel picked up yesterday but it never arrived at its destination?” Thor paused, and Bucky could hear the faint sound of a woman’s tinny voice. “What do you mean you have no record of this? I spoke to someone yesterday and I have a receipt right here, awaiting an invoice.” Bucky felt his heart drop into his shoes as Thor read out the reference number. “Uh huh… what do you mean there’s no record of that reference number in your database? Okay. Well, thank you for your help.” Thor ended the call and looked at Bucky helplessly. “They have no record of ever receiving the request. But I did, I did send it, look!”

Bucky took the receipt from Thor’s trembling hand. It looked exactly like a FedEx pickup receipt should. “It’s okay, we’ll figure this out,” Bucky said, his tone much calmer than he actually felt. “You haven’t noticed anything weird with the phone line, have you?”

“What, you mean that weird clicking before you get put through to the operator?”

“What operator?”

Thor’s mouth dropped open. “When… when you first pick up the phone, the operator asks you what number you want to dial?”

Bucky’s eyes narrowed and he held up his hand. “Okay. That should not happen. Someone has tapped into your phone line, and is pretending to be an operator. Don’t worry,” he said to Thor, who looked like he might cry. “It’s not your fault. You didn’t know. But we need to call the phone company and get this sorted.”

He left Thor and went to inform Steve and Peggy. Both of them were shocked, but admitted there was nothing they could do about it now. 

Bucky called the phone company from his cellphone, and asked them to check the line.

_“There does appear to be some interference, sir. Would you like our engineers to investigate?”_

“Please, and let me know what the problem was when it’s fixed.”

_“Absolutely, Mr Barnes. Thank you for your call!”_

Bucky ended the call and dropped his head into his hands. So far the case was off to a pretty bad start if they’d lost the only hard evidence they had. And there was no way of tracing the guy—when quizzed, Thor gave a generic description of a white male in his thirties that could describe half the white males in the city.

An hour later, Bucky received a call.

_“Mr Barnes? This is Sally Hill calling you back regarding your telephone line? Someone had put some kind of interruptor on your line so they received your outgoing calls rather than you being able to call straight out. This has now been removed, and the workmen were careful not to add any further fingerprints to it. Would you like us to send this to the police?”_

“Oh my god! Yeah, please!” 

_“We’ll do that, then. In the meantime, if you notice any further suspicious activity please call us straight away.”_

“I will. Thanks again.”

Bucky immediately called a team meeting in Steve’s office, and explained the situation to the other three.

“So basically all calls made on Thor’s phone have been interfered with,” Steve said dully.

Bucky nodded. “It would seem so. Thor, when did you notice that you had to go through an operator?”

“When I started,” Thor replied. “That’s why I thought it was normal. I’d just always had to do it.”

Steve frowned. “So some time the night before you started, they must have installed the box. How could they have known Stark was going to come to us for help?”

“Maybe they didn’t know for sure,” Peggy said, shrugging. “Maybe they were just covering their bases.”

“And the more difficult question is, what do we tell Stark?” Bucky asked. “We lost his evidence. That’s not going to reflect well on us.”

“We don’t tell him. Not yet, anyway,” Steve said. “We’ll tell him when we have to. DNA results take a long fucking time anyway, and there was no guarantee that there was any DNA to find other than Pepper’s. It was a long shot to begin with.”

“So what’s our next move?” 

Steve looked at Bucky. “Next? A little trip to Stark Tower. We’ve got some suspects to interview.”

“Are you sure we should do that today?” Peggy asked. “I feel like we should make sure we’re completely up to speed on all their background files. I still have a few to check up on.”

“Okay,” Steve said, nodding. “We’ll pencil in our trip to Stark Tower tomorrow.” He paused thoughtfully. “In fact, I think we should probably take a half day today. Yes,” he added as Bucky opened his mouth to protest, “we should. We’ve all had a bit of a shock today, and I think it would be a good idea if we took some time to regroup. Thor, if you want to go now, you can. We’ll be here until about twelve, then we’ll go too.”

“Thanks,” Thor said, smiling wanly, and left. 

“I think you should both bring your paperwork in here,” Steve said to Peggy and Bucky. “I don’t know about you, but I would feel a lot better if we were all together right now.”

“Agreed,” Bucky said, and Peggy nodded. 

They spent the rest of the morning going over the case files, occasionally discussing certain points as they delved deep into the backgrounds of Stark’s employees. By the time they were done, it was 11:30.

“So our main suspects, as it currently stands, are Lang, the Maximoff twins, and Natasha Black,” Steve said, and the others nodded. 

“I can’t believe we have four suspects out of only ten people,” Peggy said, frowning. “Can one guy really have so many dodgy people working for him?”

“We don’t know yet if this Natasha is dodgy—it’s just that the timing of her starting there is a little fishy,” Steve said. “But the other three, I agree. It doesn’t look good for the Maximoffs, and Lang—if it’s the same Lang—definitely needs investigated further.”

“I don’t think Lang would be involved in a kidnapping gang, though,” Peggy mused.

“He wouldn’t, unless it was like we said before and they’d threatened either his daughter or his job at Stark Industries,” Steve replied. “Desperate people will often do things that you wouldn’t think of them.”

“True,” Peggy said, mouth turning down. “I’m worried about the phone tapping, too. If they’ve done that, what else could they have done? Have they tapped our other phones too?”

“We’ll get someone in tomorrow to check,” Steve told her reassuringly. “I know a guy. In the meantime, I think we deserve some R and R.”

“Does this R and R involve naked time?” Bucky asked, waggling his eyebrows.

Peggy hit him on the arm. “Is sex all you think about?”

“No!” Bucky insisted, then grinned. “But it does occupy about 60 percent.”

Peggy rolled her eyes. “Men.”

“When we’re traveling home,” Steve said loudly until Bucky and Peggy looked at him, “keep an eye out for anyone following us.”

“Do you think they would?” Peggy’s eyes were wide, and Bucky squeezed her hand.

“Probably not, but it’s better safe than sorry. Right, Steve?”

“Exactly.” Steve frowned. “Maybe I’ll take Stark up on the offer of that fifty thousand bonus if we catch these guys after all. I feel like we’ve earned it already, and we’ve only just started.” He bit his lip. “I just wish I knew what the hell he’d dragged us into, because I am starting to feel a little nervous about this whole deal.”

“Whatever it is, we’ll handle it,” Bucky said soothingly. “We’ll catch the bad guys, because we’re the best in the business, and that’ll put an end to it. Plus we’ll have a shitton more money than we had when we started, and we can go somewhere hot and beach-y.”

Steve and Peggy both laughed, the tension broken. “Yeah, exactly,” Steve said, smiling fondly at them both. “And it’ll be great. We deserve a vacation. A nice, hot vacation, filled with cocktails and palm trees and beaches. And sex on beaches.”

“We do.” Bucky looked at his watch. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

They locked up their paperwork and left the office, making sure that the door was locked and bolted behind them. It was a big, solid fire door, not one that would be easily broken into, but Bucky decided to float the idea of hidden security cameras in the hallway, just in case. He had the feeling that this business was going to get a lot more dangerous before they solved it.


	6. Chapter 6

The next morning at ten a.m., armed with their combined notes and a copy of each employee’s background check report, the trio arrived at Stark Tower. Stark himself met them downstairs, and took them up to a set of offices. 

“So what do you want to do first?” Stark asked them, and Steve looked thoughtful. 

“I think we should probably look at the letters first,” Steve said. “Then we’ll talk to each employee. We only need to talk to the ones who have access to your residential area at this time.”

“Of course. Do you need anything else?”

“We should probably take a look at where the letters were found?” Bucky said, and Stark nodded.

“Sure. I’ll take you up once you’ve finished your interviews, if you like?”

“That would be great, thanks.”

“I’ll get the letters,” Stark told them. He left them waiting, and the three looked at each other.

“Nice office,” Bucky commented. “Very… clean.”

Steve snorted. “You mean soulless.”

That hadn’t quite been what Bucky had meant, but he could see where Steve was coming from. Everything was very modern, clean lines and few colors, and the walls were all painted magnolia and without personality. Bucky assumed this was just in the offices and not in the residential area, but he supposed they’d see later.

The three of them sat in silence until Stark returned, clutching a large plastic envelope with smaller paper envelopes within. He handed them to Steve, who took a pair of latex gloves from his bag and put them on before taking out the paper envelopes. 

“These have been addressed by hand,” he observed, and Stark nodded.

“I figured they probably wanted it to look like normal mail, but wait until you see the actual letters.”

Steve opened the first envelope and stared at the paper in his hand. “The letters are hand written too?”

“Yeah, that’s weird, right?”

“Yeah, although it’s pretty useless unless you have a handwriting sample to compare it to. Even then, it’s inadmissible in court. But it could give us some idea of who we’re looking for.” 

Steve took the five letters out and lined them up with their envelopes on the desk. Bucky looked over his shoulder, reading them all, as Peggy did the same. They were all along the same lines, saying that Stark would pay for some unnamed crime. 

“This one is different to the others?” Steve said suddenly, pointing to one.

Tony looked. “That was the first one.”

“It’s strange, but although it looks almost the same, that’s probably because it’s printed. Most people’s handwriting looks fairly generic when they’re printing. But this is strange… the sentence structure looks different, and look—this D is different to the Ds in the other letters. And this F is slightly more looping. I’d like to take these away and have a handwriting expert look at them?”

“Sure, of course!” Stark said.

Steve nodded and put the letters back in their envelopes, before putting those back in the plastic envelope. He packed them away in his bag, looking thoughtful. 

“Could we start talking to your employees now? The sooner we start, the sooner we can try and figure this out.”

“Yeah, that’s fine. Just tell me who you want to talk to and in what order.”

Steve took a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Tony, who nodded, and left. As soon as he was out the room, Steve turned to Bucky and Peggy.

“Okay, so I might be wrong, but I’m pretty sure there were two letter writers.”

“Why would there be two?” Bucky asked, mystified.

“I don’t know. But we need to find out. It could be important.”

“Another question that we’ve not discussed is why would they send threatening letters at all? If this was for revenge, why blackmail Stark? Why not just kill Pepper?” Peggy asked quietly. 

“Good question.” Steve frowned thoughtfully at the table. “But I think we’re going to need to figure that out before something bad happens.”

“You think it might?” Bucky asked, suddenly on alert.

“I don’t know. I just have a really bad feeling.”

Bucky knew what Steve meant. Something about this just wasn’t right. As Peggy had pointed out, why send threatening letters if they were only going to kidnap Pepper for money? And what if Steve was right and there were two letter writers? Something definitely didn’t add up.

At that moment the door opened, and Stark came in with a man who Bucky recognized as being Colonel Rhodes. The three of them smiled at him, and Steve gestured to one of the seats opposite. 

“Hello, Colonel Rhodes. Good to meet you. I’m Steve, and these are my associates, Peggy and Bucky. I’m sure Tony has explained to you why he’s brought us in.”

Colonel Rhodes nodded. “He wants you three to catch the sons of bitches who took Pepper.” He looked at the three of them approvingly. “Good. If you can catch them, then a lot of us will sleep a whole lot easier at night.”

Steve smiled. “That’s the plan. Can you tell us anything that might help?”

Colonel Rhodes thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Honestly? No. Aside from Tony’s new PA, everyone else has worked for him for at least a year. He’s sent you the background checks?”

The three of them looked at Colonel Rhodes in surprise. Bucky had assumed that since there was one for Colonel Rhodes he hadn’t known about them. Steve cleared his throat. “Uh, yeah, we’ve read them all.”

“Good. I made him get them done. Even for me. Tony can be a little too trusting of people he thinks have good hearts. He’s usually right, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t easy to hoodwink if you know how to handle him. Plus my background check was kinda… it was a control, to see if it was accurate.”

Steve nodded. “I understand. However, we have reason to believe that not all the background checks contained accurate information.”

“Really?” Colonel Rhodes sat forward in his seat. “So who…?”

“We’re not really at liberty to say at the moment,” Steve said quickly. “Right now it’s just conjecture. Once we’ve spoken to everyone on our list we’ll know a little more.”

“Interesting. I don’t suppose you’d let me sit in on these interviews?”

Steve shook his head. “Sorry, but no. If we’re wrong, we’d hate to prejudice you against a member of staff, or make you suspicious of someone for no reason. Just because someone may or may not have a past that didn’t show on the background check doesn’t mean that they’re responsible for Ms Potts’s kidnapping.”

“That’s fair. Is that everything?”

“Just one more thing.” Steve passed a notepad and pen to Colonel Rhodes. “Could you please print and sign your name on this paper? Just so we remember who we’ve spoken to.”

Colonel Rhodes smirked. “If you think I believe you then you must think I was born yesterday, but I’ll play along. Might as well clear my name.” He printed and signed his name on the piece of paper, and pushed them back across the table to Steve. When he stood up, the trio stood too, and they all shook hands. Colonel Rhodes looked each of them in the eye. “Catch those bastards,” he said solemnly. “And when you do, give me five minutes alone in a room with them.”

“I don’t know about that, but we’ll do our best to catch them,” Steve told him with a smile.

Colonel Rhodes nodded. “That’s good enough for me.”

He left, and the trio exchanged glances. “One down,” Peggy murmured, and the other two nodded.

“I don’t think it was him, but you never know with people,” Bucky said quietly. “Still waters do run deep.”

“We’ve just got to keep an open mind at this stage,” Steve responded. “Though I agree with you—I doubt it was him.”

The door opened again, and Stark peeked his head inside. “You ready for the next one?”

“Thanks, yeah,” Steve said, and Stark opened the door wide to allow the next staff member inside. 

When Lang spotted the trio his eyes widened and he took an involuntary step back.

“Um. Hi?”

“Mr Lang,” Steve said smoothly. “Thank you for joining us. Won’t you sit down?”

As the door closed behind Stark, Lang glanced at it then turned back to the trio. “Oh my god, I swear, whatever it was I didn’t do it!” he exclaimed in an urgent whisper. “I swear, I’m just trying to get on with my life and make enough money to see my daughter on a regular basis. I‘m on the straight and narrow now, I swear!”

Steve raised his eyebrows. “Okay, Mr Lang, let’s say we believe you,” he drawled. “How did you get your criminal record erased?”

Lang’s expression turned panicked. “Oh god, oh god,” he whimpered. “I knew this was all a bad idea.”

“What was?”

Lang buried his face in his hands. “Okay, I swear I didn’t want to do it! But you know that ex cons can’t even get a job at Baskin Robbins? I was desperate! And then Hank approached me…”

“Hank who?”

“Hank Pym. The scientist? He knew that Stark was trying to find a way to replicate something that Pym worked on with his father and he was afraid that if Stark succeeded it would end up in the wrong hands. So he fixed it so my criminal record kind of… disappeared so that I could work here and basically sabotage all efforts to create the experiment. It’s worked for four years. But you’ve gotta understand, if Stark succeeds, it could be disastrous!”

Bucky gaped at him. “What the hell is this experiment?”

“It’s… it’s a power source. Unlimited. Which could be great for the world, but if the wrong people got their hands on it they could basically make invincible weapons and armor. I don’t think Stark suspects my role in his failures yet, but it’s only a matter of time. I just need to hold him off as long as I can.”

Steve looked thoughtful. “What do you know about Pepper’s kidnapping?”

“Nothing, I swear!” Lang exclaimed, holding up his hands. “I promise you I had nothing to do with that. Pepper is great. I’d never do anything to hurt her. I swear it.”

“Hmm.” Steve’s tone was noncommittal, but his gaze was sharp. “Well, we’ll see.” He pushed the notepad and pen over to Lang. “Please print and sign your name here so we remember who we’ve spoken to.”

Lang nodded. “Of course.” He did as Steve had asked, then handed them back. “Was there anything else?”

Steve shook his head. “Not at the moment.”

“And… you won’t tell Stark?”

“Not right now,” Steve replied. “It’s not exactly relevant to the case we’re working, so   
I guess we can keep quiet about it for now.”

“Thanks.” Lang gave them a wan smile and left.

Next up was Natasha Black, who swept into the room as if she owned it. She looked to be in her late twenties, with short red hair and striking features. She sat down opposite the trio when asked, demeanor calm and collected, but curious.

“Ms Black, we’re here to investigate the kidnapping of Ms Potts,” Steve began, and Bucky hid his surprise at Steve being so forward about why they were there. “If there is any pertinent information you can give us, we’d really appreciate it.”

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Not that I can think of. I was shocked when it happened, of course. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer person. Ms Potts is a brilliant woman, and always has time for the staff.” She frowned. “I should probably tell you that I sort through Mr Stark’s mail, so I was the one who discovered the threatening letters first.”

“You open his mail?”

“Not everything, but this looked particularly suspicious.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Because the postage mark looked like it had been faked.”

Steve looked at her curiously. “How could you tell?”

“You’ll see when you examine them, but the first one had a typo in the postage mark.” Ms Black looked at each of them in turn. “As Mr Stark will tell you, my attention to detail is very good. It has to be in this kind of job.”

“What did you do when you read it?”

“I immediately took it to Mr Stark, who said it was probably a crank or disgruntled ex-employee.”

“So he didn’t seem worried enough to involve the police?”

“No,” Ms Black replied, frowning. “I wish to god he had now.”

“And the other threatening letters?”

“After the third one, he did call the police, but they said the same—that it was probably nothing. I’m afraid to say they didn’t take him very seriously.” Her mouth twisted. “If they had, maybe you wouldn’t have needed to be called in.”

Steve nodded, then said suddenly, “I see that you’ve only been employed by Mr Stark for three months, is that correct?”

A look of understanding passed over her face. “Yes, so of course I’m a suspect.” She shook her head. “I can assure you that I had nothing to do with the kidnapping. Or the letters. I have no grudge against Mr Stark, and certainly not against Ms Potts. You can also check my bank balances—I have not received a share of four million dollars. I wouldn’t still be working here if I had.” 

“Well, thank you for your time, Ms Black. If you could just print and sign your name here for us so we can keep track of who we’ve spoken to?” She did so quickly, then they stood and the trio shook hands with her. “We’ll be in touch if we need any further information.”

She nodded, smiling, and left the room. The trio exchanged glances. 

“What do you think?” Bucky asked.

“She’s hiding something,” Peggy responded immediately. “I don’t know what it is, but she’s hiding something.”

“Agreed,” Steve said slowly. “It could be unrelated, but I doubt she is exactly who she claims to be.” He sighed. “Let’s take five, then we can talk to the next employee on the list.”

Bucky nodded in agreement. This was definitely going to be a long day, and he needed coffee if he was going to get through it.


	7. Chapter 7

Bucky was feeling a lot more human after his coffee, and much more able to face questioning more suspects. Next on the list were the maintenance and cleaning staff, which the team whizzed through. Angela Smith and Stacy White were both nice, unassuming women who were appalled about the kidnapping and clearly had nothing to hide. Christian Bonns was a handsome, dark haired, fidgety man, obviously ill at ease being questioned, but his file said that he had problems with anxiety and low self esteem for which he had been seeing a therapist, so neither Steve nor Bucky were particularly concerned. Peggy, on the other hand, hummed thoughtfully as soon as Mr Bonns had left the room. Bucky looked at her curiously.

“What’s up?”

“I don’t know. I just get a weird vibe off of him,” Peggy replied, frowning. “I can’t explain it.” She shrugged. “Maybe he’s just generally a creepy guy, but whatever it is, just don’t leave me in a room with him by myself.”

“Of course,” Steve said soothingly. “We don’t want you to be uncomfortable.”

“I know.” She squeezed Steve’s hand, and they all smiled at each other. 

“So who’s next on the list?” Bucky asked.

Steve smiled grimly. “The twins. We’re going to talk to them together this time, so they’re less suspicious.”

“Good call.” 

Steve got up and went to the door, opening it and calling them inside. Despite the trio’s welcoming smiles, the twins still looked nervous, like deer about to bolt at the first sign of danger.

“Please sit,” Steve said gently, and the twins did so. “Don’t worry, you’re not in trouble, but you might have heard about what happened to Pepper?”

As Bucky watched them, the twins both visibly relaxed. It was slight, but it was a definite release of tension.

“Yes, we heard about that,” Pietro said slowly, his voice heavily accented. “It was a terrible thing to happen to Ms Potts. She really is the nicest lady.”

Wanda nodded. “She is lovely. She always has time for you, always ready with a smile and a kind word.”

“So you get on well with her, that’s always good to hear,” Steve said, smiling encouragingly. “It’s always good to get on with your employer, and their partners.”

The twins both froze slightly, before relaxing again. “Yes,” Wanda replied, smiling tightly. “That is always nice.”

“So basically what we wanted to ask was, had you noticed anyone hanging around who shouldn’t be? Anyone trying to get close to Ms Potts? Anything you know could help us solve this.”

The twins shared a glance, then Wanda shrugged. “I do not like Ms Black. There is something strange about her. And also the maintenance man, Mr Bonns. He is very odd.” She wrinkled her nose. “Aside from those things, no, I have not noticed anything particularly strange.”

“And what about you, Mr Maximoff?”

Pietro shook his head. “I agree with my sister about those two, but otherwise no, no one has been acting strangely. And unknown people are not permitted into the Tower unless they have clearance, so there have been none of those recently. Personally I think it was an opportunistic crime.”

“We would think that too,” Steve said quietly, “if it wasn’t for several threatening letters which were received by Mr Stark on the run up to the kidnapping.”

“Threatening… letters?” Wanda shifted slightly in her chair. “I did not hear about… about threatening letters.”

“Yes, there were five letters received by Mr Stark over the past two months.”

“Five? But…” Pietro cleared his throat. “How? Why?”

“We don’t know,” Steve replied, “but whoever it was who sent those letters may be involved in the kidnapping, so if you think of anything you may have noticed, please let us know.”

The twins both nodded emphatically, then printed and signed their names almost distractedly when requested. After they had made a quick escape from the room, the trio looked at each other, eyebrows raised.

“Well, that wasn’t at all suspicious,” Bucky murmured.

“Could be nothing,” Steve responded thoughtfully. 

“Or it could be something,” Peggy added. “I think we need to keep our eyes on those two.”

“Did you see the way they relaxed when you said that the reason we were here was the kidnapping?” Bucky asked quietly. “They could be foreign spies?”

“I saw,” Steve replied. “I think we should probably look more into their pasts, because even if they weren’t part of the kidnapping I’m not convinced they’re not still a danger.”

“You really think so?”

“I really do. There’s something about them that just rings some alarm bells for me. And especially given what we discovered about their parents’ death… I just have a bad feeling.”

Bucky took his hand, squeezing it. “Yeah, you’re right. We’ll do more research when we get back to the office.”

Steve nodded. “Okay. Next up is the chauffeur, Happy Hogan. Let’s bring him in and see what he has to say.”

The answer to that, as it turned out, was ‘a lot’. As soon as he sat down, Happy shook his head. “I know why you’re here and I can’t believe that someone would do that to Pepper. I especially feel really guilty, you know? If only I had brought the car around sooner, if only I’d stayed with her instead of with the car, if only I hadn’t missed her initial call for me to come pick her up—”

“Mr Hogan,” Steve interrupted, “you shouldn’t blame yourself. We figure these people are probably professionals, and even if you had been there you might have been taken too, or potentially hurt if you’d tried to intervene.”

“Really?” Happy let out a long breath. “That’s actually almost comforting. I mean, I still wish I could have been there for her, but if you don’t think it would have made a difference?”

“We genuinely don’t think it would have.” Steve cleared his throat. “Now, can you tell us anything that might be helpful? Anyone that’s been acting strange, or that you think might be untrustworthy? Even if you can’t put your finger on why.”

Happy frowned thoughtfully. “I don’t trust Natasha. You know, Tony’s PA? She’s too efficient. People who are that efficient can’t be normal. Plus the timing is kind of coincidental, you know? I take it Tony has told you about the letters.”

Steve nodded. “We have them.”

“Good. It’s just a little strange that they started arriving just after she did, you know? Plus she’s ridiculously good at martial arts. We sparred one day and she just completely kicked my ass. And I’m a good boxer! But she can do these weird flippy martial arts moves, even though her background check didn’t say anything about her having any martial arts skills.”

The trio looked at Happy in surprise. “You’ve seen the background checks?” Peggy asked.

“Well, yeah. I’m one of Tony’s closest confidants. He wanted my opinion on them. Mine was pretty accurate, except it didn’t say how deadly I can be when I’m riled.”

Bucky hid a grin. Happy looked the opposite of deadly. 

“So you didn’t notice anything strange about any of them?”

“Nope. I mean, there are a couple of weirdos. Clint, our security guard, would probably sell his dead mother for coffee, and the maintenance guy is a complete weirdo. Has kids too—I feel sorry for them. Plus everyone else with kids never stops showing you photographs of them, but he really keeps himself to himself, you know? But some people are like that, I guess.”

“What about the cleaning staff?”

Happy shook his head. “They’re nice ladies. Very normal. I’ve met Angela’s family at one of the work picnics a couple of years ago, and obviously Stacy is her sister so there’s nothing suspicious there.” He thought for a few moments, forehead wrinkled. “Aside from that there’s really nothing I can tell you. Sorry.”

He signed and printed his name on the list, shook hands with the trio, and left.

Steve let out a short laugh. “Man, he’s kind of talkative, huh?”

“Talkative is good,” Peggy pointed out. “Makes it easier to trip people up.”

“That’s true.” Steve sighed. “Okay, only two left—Pepper’s PA, Sam Wilson, and Clint Barton the security guard.”

He got up and called Sam into the room, and an attractive, confident guy strode in, nodding at them all.

“Hey, Tony tells me you’re all here about Pepper’s kidnapping?” Sam said.

“That’s correct,” Steve said with a smile. “We were very sorry to hear about what she went through.”

“Man, me too,” Sam responded quietly. “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer lady. Pepper’s the best boss I’ve ever had. She’s really kind and understanding.”

“We gather that you were in the military before you started working for Ms Potts?”

“Yeah, I was a pilot,” Sam told them. “When I left, with an honorable discharge, I was kinda at a bit of a loss for what to do next. I was at the VA for a group thing when Pepper came to talk about some work she was doing for vets. I got talking to her, jokingly asked her if she had any job openings, and she hired me as her PA on the spot. I was really lucky that day.”

“If you don’t mind us asking, why did you leave the military?” Bucky asked.

Sam shrugged. “I, uh, I lost my co-pilot, and it didn’t seem right flying without him,” he said softly.

“I’m so sorry,” Steve said as the others nodded.

“Yeah, well, you know. These things happen. I was kinda messed up about it for a while, you know? Couldn’t get my head around Riley not being around anymore. I’m doing better now, though, thanks to therapy. And Pepper’s help. She’s an amazing listener, always knows when I’m in the mood to talk about the times Riley and I had together.”

“That’s really great that she does that,” Steve told him. “So have you noticed anything or anyone acting suspiciously recently?”

Sam shook his head. “Nothing. I mean, Happy and I talk about it sometimes, about how if we’d been there that day we might have stopped those guys from taking her, but I know it doesn’t work like that. Though maybe we might have been able to pick up some small detail that would help, like the plate number of the van, or the height and build of the guy that took her.” He sighed. “Poor Pepper doesn’t really remember any of it. The trauma, you know? All she remembers is a skull type mask on the guy that took her, and bones in an x on his shirt.”

“A skull and bones in an x shape?” Steve asked, suddenly on the alert. “No one has told us that before.”

“Yeah, she told me that the other guys were dressed in pure black with masks on, but he was different. Though he wasn’t the main guy because there was another guy in a black mask who was giving orders. She said he sounded older. But that’s all she remembers about the whole time, which is probably just as well given what they did to her,” Sam finished with a growl. “Bastards. You’re gonna catch them, right?”

“We’re gonna do our best,” Steve assured him. “If you think of anything, no matter how small, call us straight away, okay?”

“I will do. Is there anything else?”

He signed and printed his name on the list, shook their hands, and left. 

“Does that mean anything to you?” Bucky asked Steve. “The skull and bones thing?”

“It might. I’m gonna have to check when we’re back at the office, though.” Steve frowned. “Anyway, one more to go, and then we’re done.”

He called Barton into the room, and a blond man with a purple shirt slouched in, sprawling in the seat opposite them. 

“So you’re the private dicks, huh?” he drawled.

“We are,” Steve replied coolly. “And you’re a security guard.”

Barton glared. “Security _Asset_ and master marksman, thank you very much.”

“Sorry,” Steve said, not sounding very sorry at all. “So, Mr Barton, what can you tell us about the kidnapping? Did you notice anyone acting suspiciously around the time that Ms Potts was taken or after she was returned?”

Barton shrugged. “People are always acting suspiciously. Whether it’s because they have something to hide that’s relevant to the case at hand is another matter, but people in general are pretty shifty.” He narrowed his eyes. “Everyone has a story.”

Bucky looked at Barton appraisingly. The guy had a point, which was of course half the problem. “Okay, so anyone acting in a way that would lead you to believe they were involved?” Bucky asked.

“Nope,” Barton replied decidedly. “And I’d be really surprised if any of the main staff was involved. Certainly anyone who’s worked here longer than a year or so.”

“And Mr Stark’s PA? Miss Black?”

Barton snorted. “If that’s her real name I’ll eat my shirt. Talk about a woman with secrets. I saw her down at the shooting range once—she didn’t see me, I don’t think—and she was a perfect shot. Why would a PA know how to handle a weapon like that?”

“And you’re sure it was her?” Steve asked, leaning forward slightly in his chair.

“Positive. That’s a woman you don’t forget in a hurry, if you know what I mean.”

“Do you think she might be behind the kidnapping?”

Barton thought for a moment. “It’s not impossible,” he said at length. “But what would her motive be?”

“Well, it’s like you said, Mr Barton,” Steve said. “Everyone’s got a story.”

***

They got Barton to print and sign his name on the list with the others, then called Stark into the room.

“I think we’re making progress,” Steve told him. “But we have a lot to discuss. At the moment we need to narrow down the suspects.”

“Narrow them down?” Stark’s eyebrows nearly disappeared into his hair. “You mean there’s more than one person here who could potentially have been behind this?”

“I’m afraid so.”

“Who? Tell me who!” Stark asked frantically, but Steve shook his head.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t tell you. What if we’re wrong? Or what if we’re right, and you confront them before we have a chance to gather evidence? I’m sorry, but you’re just going to have to wait until we’re further along in our investigation before we can tell you anything conclusively.”

Stark sighed. “Fine. I won’t ask questions then. But you think you’ve got a good chance of finding the culprit?”

“I hope so.” Steve stood, and the others followed suit, packing their notes into their bags. “Thank you for your time today and allowing us to speak to your staff.”

“Any time, Steve, if it means you catch whoever is responsible.”

Steve nodded, and the trio made their way back to their offices.

When they arrived, Thor was waiting for them. 

“How did it go?” he asked eagerly.

Bucky shook his head. “Don’t ask. Pretty sure we haven’t managed to narrow it down at all.” He looked at the time. “Hey, if you want to leave now, you can. It’s only a half hour until we’re due to close anyway, so you may as well. I think we’re just gonna type up our notes and go.”

“Thanks, Bucky.” Thor grabbed his coat and smiled. “Catch you later!”

Bucky went through to Steve’s office, where he was sitting with Peggy. “So what are we thinking?”

Peggy frowned. “I’m thinking this isn’t just a straightforward grudge and revenge kidnapping. I think this is more likely a gang.”

“What about the letters?”

“If Steve is right, there were two letter writers. Maybe the first one was genuine, but the others were written to put people off the scent. That way, if the finger of suspicion points to the kidnapper, they can prove they have no grudge against Stark, which would imply they were innocent of the kidnapping.”

“So we’re back at square one,” Bucky said with a sigh.

“No, we have a lot more information. We have a lot of impressions of the staff.” Steve paused. “I for one have my money on Natasha Black. The timing is just too much of a coincidence.”

“What are we going to do with the letters?” Bucky asked.

“Gonna bring in our handwriting expert tomorrow,” Steve replied with a grin.

“Good! Man, I haven’t seen Nick in forever.” Bucky looked at the pile of paper on Steve’s desk and sighed. “Come on. Let’s file this stuff and go home. Tomorrow’s gonna be a long day.”

Steve took the paperwork through to file it, as Bucky shrugged his jacket back on thoughtfully. They were obviously getting deeper into something—the question was, what?


	8. Chapter 8

Bucky was poring over the letters with Steve and Peggy when there was an urgent knock on Steve’s office door. At Steve’s “Come in!” the door practically burst open and Thor hurried inside, waving an envelope.

“Thor? What’s wrong?” Peggy asked.

“I was opening the mail,” Thor began, talking so fast he stumbled over every other word, “and I saw this one and I opened it and…” He passed it to Steve, who pulled the letter out of the envelope and stared at it. 

Bucky and Peggy both looked over his shoulder, and Peggy gasped.

_DEAR PIS,_ it read. _YOU THINK YOU’RE SO SMART, DON’T YOU? YOU MUST, IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE A HOPE OF CATCHING US. BUT WE WANT YOU TO KNOW: WE’RE WATCHING YOU. YOU MIGHT HAVE FOUND OUR PHONE TAP, BUT REST ASSURED WE HAVE OTHER WAYS OF WATCHING. WE DON’T CARE HOW MUCH STARK IS PAYING YOU—IT CAN’T BE ENOUGH TO RISK YOUR LIVES. STAY OUT OF THIS. IF YOU DON’T PAY ATTENTION TO THIS, YOUR FIRST WARNING, WE CAN GUARANTEE THAT BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. YOU’D BETTER NOT GO ANYWHERE ALONE. WE WILL NOT HESITATE TO BRING YOU ALL DOWN._

It was unsigned. Bucky looked up at his partners; Steve’s expression was solemn, while Peggy’s hand was over her mouth, her eyes wide.

“It looks like the same handwriting,” Steve said gruffly, putting the letter down beside the last Stark letter. “They’re trying to scare us off.”

“Are you saying it’s not working?” Bucky asked incredulously. “Because I pretty much consider myself scared right now.”

Steve looked at him in surprise, and Bucky rolled his eyes. “Not for me, doofus. For you guys.”

Steve’s expression softened. “It’s okay, Buck. Nothing is gonna happen to us. _Any_ of us.”

Bucky wasn’t convinced, but he held his peace. “So what now?”

“Now we bring in someone who will hopefully be able to help us,” Steve responded with a grim smile. 

***

Nicholas J Fury, handwriting expert, was a tall, imposing man who for reasons unknown to the trio wore an eyepatch. When Thor led him through to Steve’s office he strode inside, shaking hands with all three of them. 

“So you guys have a job for me?” Nick asked, and Steve nodded, grinning. 

“You never were one for small talk, were you, Nick?” he said with a laugh. “Okay, let’s cut to the chase.” Steve took the letters out and laid them on the table in front of Nick. “We’re currently working a case where threatening letters were received before a member of the household was kidnapped. I have a theory, but have a look and see what you think.”

Nick looked at each letter carefully in turn, humming to himself occasionally. At length, he sat back, and picked up the first letter.

“This wasn’t written by the same person as the others,” he said slowly.

Steve nodded. “That’s exactly what I thought, which complicates things a little.” He passed the letter they had received that morning over to Nick. “This was received this morning, at this office.”

Nick’s eye widened and he took the letter, looking over it and holding it next to the others.

“This was definitely written by the second letter writer, not the first,” he told them. “You see here, and here, and here?” He pointed to various letters, and the trio nodded. “These are different on the first letter. It’s a fairly decent copy of the handwriting, but it’s not going to fool an expert.” He paused thoughtfully. “Do you have any ideas about who could have written these?”

Steve shook his head. “We have some handwriting samples here—short, but hopefully you can get something from them.”

Nick shrugged. “I’ll try, but since it’s printed it’ll be more difficult. People’s handwriting tends to look similar when printed.”

Steve gave him the sheet from the notebook with the Stark Industries’ employees printed names and signatures. Bucky found himself holding his breath as Nick examined the handwriting samples against the letters.

“Anything?” Peggy asked at length.

“Not really,” Nick replied, frowning. “From what I can see, it could be any one of these six.”

He pointed, and Bucky jotted down the names. Scott Lang, Natasha Black, Pietro Maximoff, Wanda Maximoff, Christian Bonns, and Stacy White.

“Damn,” Bucky said. “All our suspects are on this list.”

“Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful,” Nick said ruefully. “If handwriting identification was an exact science that would probably make your lives a lot easier right now.”

“It would,” Steve agreed, “but it’s not your fault. We’re really grateful for your help.”

Nick waved his hand dismissively. “Anything for my good friends.” He looked at them curiously. “Word on the grapevine is that Tony Stark’s girlfriend got kidnapped, and Stark paid out a lot of money to get her back. That wouldn’t happen to be the case you’re working on now, would it?”

Steve shook his head. “You know I couldn’t tell you if it was. We do abide by client confidentiality.”

“Oh well,” Nick responded, “I had to ask. You need me for anything else you let me know, okay?”

They all shook hands again, and Steve led Nick out. When he got back, he flopped into his chair, sighing. 

“I’d really hoped that would be more useful,” he said regretfully. “But then it’s like Nick said, it’s not an exact science.”

“I suppose,” Peggy said quietly. She picked up their letter and read through it again. “It worries me that they say they have other ways of watching us. You don’t think we’ve been bugged, do you?”

Steve and Bucky stared at her, wide eyed. “Fuck, I hope not!” Steve exclaimed. “We should probably check all the offices, though, just in case.”

They swept the offices one by one, then moved onto reception, but found nothing. The trio heaved a collective sigh of relief. 

“Maybe they just said that to psych us out?” Bucky said, falsely optimistic.. 

Steve shook his head. “No, I’m pretty sure they’ve got surveillance on us somehow. Even if it’s just someone in an office opposite with binoculars. They’ve got too much riding on us not solving this case to leave it alone.” He frowned. “None of us can go anywhere by ourselves any more. Not even Thor. That means we take it in turns to do the lunch run with him.”

“You really think they’d do something to Thor?” Bucky asked, aghast. 

“He’s part of the team, isn’t he? This means no one stays late in the office by themselves. No one leaves alone. And we all have to make sure we use the check-in system at all times. This isn’t just a simple case any more.”

Peggy’s expression was concerned. “Should we even continue with the case? If it’s going to be so dangerous?”

“Not if you don’t want to, Peggy,” Steve replied softly. “If it’s too dangerous then I’ll tell Stark right now that we’re dropping the case. He can have our notes, but we can’t continue.”

“I just don’t want to lose either of you,” Peggy said quietly. 

Steve and Bucky wrapped her in a hug. “You won’t,” Steve told her. “That’s not gonna happen. We’re gonna be extra careful from now on. No one is going to hurt us, okay?”

Peggy nodded, clinging to them both. “Then let’s see it through,” she said, determination in her tone. “These guys need to be caught, and if we’re the only ones Stark trusts to catch them then we have to work fast.”

Steve nodded, and they all sat around his desk. “Okay, first things first. We have four main suspects, plus a couple of others whose handwriting might be a match who we need to look into further. First up: Lang.”

“We need to talk to this Hank Pym guy,” Bucky said. “Check If Lang’s story is true.”

“That’s if Pym will talk,” Steve said grimly. “If he’s sent Lang into Stark Industries to sabotage Stark’s work, then he’s unlikely to admit to it at first.”

“We can handle that,” Peggy said immediately. 

“Okay. So that’s on the list.” Steve made a note. “Next, the Maximoff twins. I still think they’re likely suspects. They’re obviously hiding something, and they have good reason for a grudge against Stark Industries. The question is, how to check? We can’t exactly take a trip to Sokovia; none of us speak the language, and besides, who would we talk to? The abusive aunt is dead, their parents are dead, I don’t think they had any other family?”

“Not that I could find in the system,” Bucky said, shaking his head. “Which isn’t to say that they don’t have some old friends floating around somewhere, but finding them covertly wouldn’t exactly be easy.”

“True. Okay, well, we’ll keep an eye on them but put them on the back burner for now.” Steve looked at the next person on the list. “Natasha Black.”

“She’s my main suspect at the moment,” Peggy said decidedly. “She was obviously hiding something, the timing is too coincidental, and even the security guy doesn’t trust her, despite her impeccable background.”

“Plus, Barton thought she might be using a pseudonym,” Steve added thoughtfully. “Something else to explore further. Although her background check went through without issue, so if she is using a false identity then they must have gone to great lengths to create it.”

“I think they would,” Bucky said. “It’s not like they were playing for small change. Four million dollars is a lot of money. High stakes. They’d put in the effort.”

“True.” Steve’s finger moved down the list. “Two members of the maintenance staff—Christian Bonns and Stacy White. Peggy got a weird vibe off Bonns, and others mentioned that he was a little creepy. Which of course could mean nothing; some people are just kind of creepy. Stacy White seemed normal, plus she’s working with her sister so she’s pretty much in the clear as far as whether her background is real or not.”

“Unless they’re both in on it and they’re not really sisters,” Bucky pointed out.

“True. Something else to consider, then.” Steve sighed. “I feel like we’re going nowhere fast with this. There are too many suspects. We need to narrow it down before we go any further.”

“How?”

“I think Pym should be our first port of call. That way we can either strike Lang off the list or move him to the top.” He frowned. “First, though, we need to talk to Thor.” He buzzed Thor to come through. 

A few moments later, Thor knocked lightly on the door before coming in. “What’s up?”

“Come on and have a seat,” Steve told him, and Thor did so. “That letter we received earlier was a warning from the same people who sent letters to Stark. They’re not playing around. Basically, what this means is no one goes anywhere alone, no one stays here alone, no one works late alone, no one leaves alone. Okay?”

Thor nodded, frowning. “You think that’ll deter them?”

“I don’t know. I’m hoping so. Strength in numbers, you know? We’re all pretty good at taking care of ourselves, and if there’s two of us we stand a better chance of actually making it through this case without getting hurt.”

“Okay,” Thor said. “What about the lunch run?”

“We take it in turns coming with you,” Bucky told him. “It’s my turn first.”

“You really think they might come after me?”

“You’re part of the team. Yeah, there’s a possibility,” Steve said. “I mean, I’d hope not, but we can’t take that chance.”

“And what about during the day when you’re all out investigating?”

“You work from home. You don’t answer the door unless you know the person. Seriously, I don’t want anyone in this office alone.”

“Okay.”

“Speaking of, we need to go out in about ten minutes, so we’ll walk you to your car. You won’t need to come in for the rest of the day. It’s not like we’re taking walk-ins or any more cases at the moment anyway.”

When Thor had gone back to his desk, Steve looked up Hank Pym’s office address on his computer, scribbling it down in his notebook. 

“We ready to go?” Peggy asked, and Steve squeezed her hand.

“Yeah. Onwards!”

Bucky hid a smile as they all trooped out. Hopefully this interview would narrow down their list of suspects by one. It wasn’t much, but at least it would be a start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay I am literally the most impatient person in the world so I’m going to be posting the rest now. Asdfhjkl.


	9. Chapter 9

Pym Technologies was situated in a large office block in East Manhattan. The trio showed their PI badges and requested to see Dr Hank Pym.

“I’m very sorry,” the man on reception told them, “but Dr Pym doesn’t see walk-ins.”

“Tell him it’s regarding a Mr Scott Lang.”

The receptionist sighed. “One moment please.” He picked up his phone and dialed, expression bored. “Hi, yeah,” he said at length. “I have some private investigators here to see Dr Pym about a Scott Lang?” He waited for a moment, and his eyes widened. “Um, okay? Thanks.” He looked at the trio, eyes wide. “Dr Pym will see you. Take the elevator up to the top floor, and speak to his assistant.”

“Thank you,” Steve said with a smile, and together they went up in the elevator.

When they reached the top floor, they were met by an agitated looking young woman with short brown hair. “You’re the private investigators?” she asked, and the trio nodded. “Dr Pym will see you now.”

She led them to a pair of tall, imposing doors and let them inside. It was a beautiful office, all antique furniture, with bookcases filled with scientific manuals and journals. There were some small pieces of curios here and there too, which all looked to be antiques, such as a tiny globe and telescope.

And older looking man was standing by the window with his back to them. “So,” the man said without turning around, “you want to talk about Mr Lang.”

“Yes,” Steve said slowly. “We understand he works for you?”

“I’m afraid you have your wires crossed.” The man turned around, eyes narrowed. “Mr Lang works for Tony Stark, as far as I understand it.”

“He says he works for you. That you hired him and helped him wipe his records so he could sabotage an experiment that Mr Stark was attempting.”

“I see. And do you have evidence of this?”

Steve sighed. “Dr Pym, let me be honest with you. We’re really not interested in whether or not you have been involved in messing with Mr Stark’s work. Frankly, he doesn’t need to know. What we _are_ interested in is whether or not Mr Lang was involved in the kidnapping of Mr Stark’s girlfriend, Ms Potts.”

Pym’s eyes widened. “I’m sorry, what?”

“Ms Potts was kidnapped a few weeks ago, and tortured before being returned to Mr Stark at a cost of four million dollars. He doesn’t care about the money, but the fact they tortured her means that he wants them caught. We were the ones who caught Mr Lang before, on a case which got him sent to prison, so you can see why we’re suspicious.”

Pym frowned. “You should probably sit down, then.” The trio did so, and Pym took a deep breath. “It’s true. I hired Mr Lang to go and work for Stark, making sure that his experiment for a new power source would not succeed. I worked on this project with Stark’s father, and we managed to create it, but we destroyed our results because we knew that in the wrong hands this could get ugly.”

“You mean like a foreign power?” Peggy asked.

“I mean like the US military, although a foreign power was also a danger. Anyone who thinks war is an acceptable means to any end should not have this technology.”

“I see,” Steve said. “So you helped Mr Lang by wiping his criminal record and sent him off to work for Stark.”

“I did.” Pym looked at them searchingly. “I can guarantee that Scott had nothing to do with any of this kidnapping business. If he did I’d willingly make sure that the criminal record reappeared on his files. But I know him. He wouldn’t do that.”

“What if his daughter had been threatened?”

Pym shook his head. “If he was in any kind of trouble he’d have come to me. He’d know I would fix it. He’s a good guy.”

“He’s a thief.”

“Only because he was trying to make money so he could see his daughter, not because he’s a bad guy.”

Bucky hid a smile. “So you can vouch for Mr Lang and confirm that we shouldn’t consider him a suspect?”

“I can,” Pym said, nodding. “And while I’m not Tony Stark’s biggest fan, if there’s anything I can do to help, please let me know.”

“We will,” Steve said. “Thank you.”

When they got out of the building, Peggy sighed. “I guess we can cross Lang off of our list, then,” she said slowly.

“I guess so.” Steve put on his sunglasses. “Where to next?”

“We could always go back to the office? Thor’s gone home, so we’d be all alone,” Bucky said with a grin.

Steve opened his mouth to retort when his phone began to ring. He looked at the caller ID then answered quickly.

“Hey, Tony, what is it?... Okay, we’ll be there in ten minutes.” He ended the call and looked at the others. “Pepper’s started to remember some things about the kidnapping.”

***

When they arrived at Stark Tower, they were ushered directly to the residential floor, and met at the doorway by Stark himself.

“Thank god you were able to come so quick,” he said frantically. “I don’t know what to do, it’s like she’s having flashbacks.”

“Are you sure she’ll want to talk to us?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, she asked for you three specifically.” Stark shook his head. “I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Steve grimaced, then clapped Stark on the arm. “Don’t worry, Tony. We’ll talk to her.”

“Thank you,” Stark said sincerely, and led them through to a large, airy living area.

Pepper was sitting on a sofa, legs beneath her, hugging a cushion with a tissue held up to her face. She looked, in short, like she was barely keeping it together.

Peggy sat beside her, ducking her head to catch Pepper’s eye. “Pepper? You wanted to talk to us?”

Pepper nodded. “I’ve been remembering some things,” she said, then laughed hoarsely. “I’m sorry, I don’t know why I’m reacting like this. I thought I was tougher than this, you know?”

“It’s okay to feel this way,” Peggy said gently. “You’ve been through a lot. That doesn’t make you weak in any way, it’s just that you’re trying to deal with what happened as best you can.”

“Thanks,” Peggy said with a weak smile. “Okay, so I think I remember vaguely where they took me.”

Steve sat down on a chair opposite, pen and notepad in hand. “Go on?”

“I had a bag over my head, but when we got there I could hear gulls and smell the sea. It must have been down at the docks. And when they took the bag off, I was inside a warehouse. It was pretty dark, but I remember the walls were green, dark green, and the paint was peeling. It was really old. The floor was concrete. They tied me to a chair. Said I wasn’t going anywhere until Tony paid up.” She frowned. “I remember hearing noises outside, like a crane? Or something? I could definitely see a yellow crane through one of the high windows.”

“That’s really great, Pepper,” Steve said softly. “Anything else?”

She shook her head. “The people who took me—they wore masks the whole time. And I wouldn’t recognize their voices, because they were all wearing sound distorters to disguise themselves.”

“Okay. We can work with that, thank you, Pepper.” Steve nodded to her and stood, and the trio walked towards the elevator. Stark caught up with them. 

“Do you know where she was held?”

“Not exactly, but we’re gonna try and figure it out,” Steve replied.

***

They messaged Thor to tell him they were going down to the docks, and parked the car near the warehouses.

“I think we should split up,” Bucky said. “We’ll cover more ground that way.”

Steve frowned at him. “I’m not so sure that’s a good idea.”

“Oh, come on, Steve. They’re not gonna be here. If they are, I’m armed, and I can take care of myself. You and Peggy check the warehouse logs; I’m gonna see if I can find somewhere that matches Pepper’s description.”

Steve shook his head. “Fine. But if you die I’m gonna be mad.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Bucky grinned before kissing both of them briefly. “Wish me luck!”

As Steve and Peggy headed off to the offices at the edge of the docks, Bucky took out his flashlight, and began looking in windows. The first row of warehouses didn’t fit the description at all, and he sighed. This one was too small; this one didn’t have any high windows; this one was painted yellow, not green. 

He looked around. Maybe he was going about this the wrong way. If he could find a tall yellow crane and work back from there then maybe he’d be able to locate the right warehouse. 

After about twenty minutes of searching, he spotted the tall yellow crane, and began looking at all warehouses which might have a view of it. Half an hour later, he thought he might have found what he was looking for. The warehouse had no ground level windows, so he climbed up onto a stack of crates and looked through a high window, shining his flashlight inside. 

Green, peeling walls. Jackpot. 

He sent a quick message to Peggy, Steve, and Thor with his location, and climbed back off the crates, making his way around to the door. There was a small padlock, which he broke open easily, and after unholstering his gun he slowly opened up the door and crept inside. 

The place was deserted. He shone his flashlight around, and spotted the crane through the window. This was definitely the place. He passed over a patch of rust red on the floor and shuddered. That was a hell of a big bloodstain. What had happened here? Who were these guys?

There were a couple of chairs in main room of the warehouse, but nothing more. Shining his flashlight around, Bucky realized there was a room at the back. He walked quickly towards the door, and tried the handle. 

Locked. 

He took out his lock picks again, and began to work on the door until it opened with a protesting creak. He shone his flashlight around the room. There was very little in there—only a desk, a chair, and a safe. 

He tried to open the safe, but it was locked tight. 

Bucky sighed and bent down, ear to the door of the safe as he fiddled with the combination. He was the only one of the three of them who could crack safes without expert equipment; a skill of which he was particularly proud. At length, the door clicked loudly, and he pulled the handle, opening it up. 

He gasped when he saw what was inside. Piles of paperwork, all of which was stamped “Hydra Inc”. 

As Bucky knelt next to the open safe, rifling through the paperwork inside, pain exploded in his head before everything went dark.


	10. Chapter 10

Bucky came to slowly, to see Steve and Peggy hovering over him, looking worried. 

“What’s… what happened?” he slurred, trying to get up. Steve held him down. 

“Don’t move, Buck. You’ve just been unconscious.”

“Unconscious? Fuck, bastards must have got the drop on me.”

“How do you feel?” Peggy asked, and Bucky smiled at her. 

“Like I’ve been hit by a car, sweetheart, but don’t worry. Takes more than that to keep me down.”

Steve glared at him. “What the hell were you thinking, coming in here alone? After we got that letter?”

“I thought it would be fine. You had my coordinates.”

“Yeah, and we headed over here as soon as we got them. But not in time to stop them getting you.”

“I’m _fine_ ,” Bucky protested as his stomach rolled. “I just think I need to throw up and then I’ll be okay.”

“We’re taking you to the hospital,” Steve said angrily. “No, we are,” he continued when Bucky opened his mouth to protest. Bucky subsided, rolling his eyes, but that made him feel more dizzy so he stopped. 

“Wait!” he said suddenly. “The safe!”

“The empty safe? What about it?”

“But it wasn’t empty!” Bucky cried helplessly. “It was full, full of papers!”

“Papers?” Steve asked, suddenly alert. “What papers?”

“Some invoices, some other mail. All addressed to or headed ‘Hydra Inc.’”

“Hydra? That was the name on the ownership of a couple of warehouses here,” Peggy said. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

Steve and Peggy helped Bucky up between them, and half led, half carried him out to the car. They bundled him into the back seat and Peggy kissed him before buckling his seatbelt. They sped off to the hospital, and got him into the ER. 

Three hours later, he was finally called by a doctor. The doctor shone a light in both of Bucky’s eyes after hearing what had happened, and took various vitals. 

“Well,” the doctor said jovially, “you seem alright. Eyes responding normally so you probably don’t have a concussion. You’ll probably have a nasty bump for a few days, though.”

“But I’m okay?”

The doctor nodded. “You’re fine. Just rest easy for a few days. Nothing overly strenuous. You live with anyone?”

“Yeah.”

“Make sure they check on you, and stay with you for the first 48 hours so they can look out for problems such as changes in your behaviour or difficulty concentrating or understanding. Take Tylenol for the pain. Put some ice on the bump. If you do have a concussion, no exercise until you feel better. Symptoms persist, or you feel any worse, come straight back here. Okay?”

Bucky nodded. “Can you please write all this down? I’m still feeling a little woozy and probably won’t remember.”

“Of course.” The doctor scribbled on his notepad and tore off the page, handing it to Bucky. “And I think you’re good! Hope you feel better soon, Mr Barnes, and do try and stay out of situations where you’re going to get knocked out, hmm?”

“Yes, doc,” Bucky replied sheepishly, before grabbing his jacket and heading back out to the waiting room, where Peggy and Steve were sitting. “You ready to go?” he asked them, and they nodded. 

“You got a concussion?” Steve asked. 

“The doc doesn’t think so, but you’ve gotta keep an eye on me.” He handed the piece of paper to Steve, who read it quickly. 

“Okay, cool. We’d better get you home and into bed.”

“I like the sound of that,” Bucky responded with a smirk. 

When they got back to their apartment, Bucky looked at the time. “Oh my god, it’s eight thirty! Did you message Thor and tell him what happened?”

“Yeah, he’s gonna stay safe tonight. He said to get better soon,” Steve told him. 

“Tell him thanks.” Bucky paused. “So are you two gonna join me or what?”

“Bucky,” Steve said patiently, “it says you’ve not to do anything strenuous.”

“Only if I have a concussion, which I don’t, so we’re fine! Besides, if Peggy rides me and you sit on my face, that’s hardly me doing anything strenuous.”

Steve looked at him for a long moment, before pulling him in for a bruising kiss. Somewhere along the way, Peggy joined in, and the kiss turned wet and messy and sloppy and perfect. 

They made their way through to the bedroom, stripping on the way, and by the time they got in they were naked. Peggy pushed Bucky down on the bed, where he landed with a bump, and crawled up onto him. He reached for her, pulling her forward and licking at her pussy as he pushed his fingers inside of her, and she moaned. 

“Isn’t that my job?” Steve asked breathlessly, kneeling behind Peggy and rubbing his hard cock against her ass. 

Bucky pulled back. “If you wanna take over, be my guest.”

Peggy leaned over and kissed Bucky, then slid down to take his cock into her mouth. As she sucked him, Bucky watched while Steve positioned himself behind her and began to eat her out. He did something that made her moan around Bucky’s cock, and Bucky nearly bit through his lip. 

He combed his fingers through her hair, and she smiled at him around her mouthful, her small hand stroking what she couldn’t fit in her mouth. She kept making amazing noises around him as Steve licked and sucked and fingered her cunt, until she pulled off of Bucky’s cock, coming with a cry. 

Steve moved up the bed to kiss Bucky, then pushed his soaked fingers into Bucky’s mouth. Bucky licked the taste of Peggy’s cunt off them, as she sheathed his cock in a condom and sank down onto it.

Bucky groaned as she began to move, riding him hard as she rubbed her clit against him. Steve positioned himself in front of Bucky’s mouth, feeding his cock inside. Bucky swallowed around him, taking him in as far as he could until he gagged around the head. Steve pulled out slightly, then began to fuck Bucky’s mouth, never thrusting in far enough to choke him. 

Bucky grabbed Steve’s ass encouragingly, teasing Steve’s hole with his finger, and Steve moaned. 

“Oh my god, Buck, oh god, you look so good with my dick in your mouth, oh fuck, I’m gonna come!”

“Do it, Steve,” Peggy encouraged him. “Come down his throat, you know he wants it.”

Steve thrust only a few more times before coming, Bucky’s name on his lips, and Bucky’s mouth was filled with bittersalt liquid. He climbed off Bucky and kissed him, then knelt up and kissed Peggy. 

“Come on, Peg, baby, tell me you’re close,” Steve murmured against her. 

“Oh yeah, Steve, I’m getting so close, god, he feels so good inside me and against my cunt.”

Bucky shifted his hips, starting to fuck up into her, and she moved more frantically as she neared orgasm, before moaning as she came. The feel of her cunt clenching around his hard cock was more than enough to tip him over the edge, and Bucky thrust into her only twice more before coming hard with a strangled groan. 

They flopped onto the bed together, and Peggy disposed of the condom by tying it off and throwing it languidly towards the wastepaper basket. 

“You see?” Bucky murmured, kissing them both in turn. “Not strenuous at all.”

***

Bucky was having a great dream about being in a huge jacuzzi with bubbles, kissing Steve and Peggy in turn as they both stroked him, when suddenly he was jolted out of sleep. His eyes flew open and he grabbed the arm of the person shaking him, who turned out to be Steve. 

“Steve,” Bucky growled. “What the _fuck_ are you doing?”

“Um. Making sure you’re still alive?”

“What?”

“I looked it up online, and you have to wake people with a concussion up occasionally to make sure you can still wake up!”

“Steve,” Bucky said slowly, “what part of ‘the doctor said I don’t have a concussion’ did you not understand?”

Steve’s face fell. “I was just, you know. Worried,” he mumbled.

Bucky looked at him, expression softening. “You don’t have to be worried about me, Steve. I’m okay.”

“But what if you hadn’t been? What if they’d hit you harder and you’d had brain damage, or worse, just never woken up? What the hell would Peggy and I have done?”

Bucky pressed their foreheads together. “It’s okay, Steve. I’m okay, I promise. I’m not going anywhere. Now go back to sleep before you wake Peggy.”

“You think I’m not awake?” Peggy murmured sleepily from beside him. “Steve was shaking you so hard I thought there was an earthquake.”

Steve’s expression turned sheepish. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, Steve,” Bucky said softly. “Come on, come back to bed.”

Steve climbed in beside Bucky and clung to him like a lifeline. Bucky couldn’t help but feel slightly smothered—Steve was like a human radiator—but he knew Steve needed that closeness, so said nothing. Soon he was drifting back into sleep.

***

They messaged Thor the next morning to tell him that they were taking the day off, and Steve called Stark while Bucky pretended not to listen in.

“Hey, Tony, it’s Steve. We had a bit of a situation yesterday and we’ll be taking the day off today to regroup. You don’t have to pay us for today. … No, we’re all fine, Bucky just. … Bucky was attacked and got knocked out. … No, no concussion, he’s okay, but good news is we’ve found a lead. … We’re not sure what it means yet, we’re gonna have to do more digging, but it’s something. … Yeah, we’ll let you know as soon as we know anything. Okay? … Yeah. Okay, thanks, Tony.” He ended the call and sighed. “Tony says he hopes you feel better soon.”

“I feel fine,” Bucky said through his mouthful of cereal. Peggy punched him lightly on the shoulder.

“Don’t be disgusting,” she said primly, and Bucky stuck out his tongue with a bunch of chewed up cereal on it. 

“Oh my god, Buck, no one wants to see that,” Steve groaned. “Can you not?”

Bucky grinned and continued eating as Steve flicked through the newspaper. “Anything interesting in there?” Bucky asked.

“Really not,” Steve replied abstractedly. “Even the comics are kinda depressing.”

“Nothing about a heroic PI getting knocked out by unknown assailants?” Bucky asked with a grin.

Steve gave him an expressive look. “That would kind of fuck up our case, don’t you think, since we’re trying to keep the investigation quiet?”

“True, but still.” Bucky took his last mouthful of cereal. When he had swallowed it, he kissed Steve and Peggy in turn. “Okay, I’m gonna go shower. Who wants to come in with me in case I get dizzy and fall?”

“I thought you were fine?” Peggy asked dryly.

Bucky shrugged. “Worth a shot.”

They spent the day relaxing: watching TV, reading, and napping together on the sofa. After lunch, Bucky looked around and realized Steve had disappeared. He went back into the kitchen, where Steve was sitting at the table on his laptop.

Bucky frowned at him. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing?” Steve said quickly, then sighed. “Fine, I’m trying to see if I can find anything about this Hydra Inc.”

“Steve, you’re supposed to be taking the day off to look after me!”

“You’ve already told us you don’t need looking after.”

Bucky rolled his eyes. “Fine. You find anything?”

“They’re a holding company. And to find out anything more requires better computer skills than I have.”

“Tell me you’re gonna call Luis first thing tomorrow.”

“I’m gonna call Luis first thing tomorrow.”

Bucky did a little fist pump. “Awesome, I haven’t seen Luis in forever. I miss that guy.”

“He certainly is a good conversationalist,” Steve responded with a grin.

“So do you think he can help?”

Steve shrugged. “If he can’t, no one can. You know what he’s like with computers.”

“True.” Bucky smirked. “You can tell Peggy, though. You know Luis drives her nuts even though she loves him.”

“I think it’s because Peggy is so organized in everything, down to how she thinks, and she finds it hard to follow Luis when he talks sometimes.”

“What are you boys talking about?” Peggy asked as she came into the kitchen.

“Uh, I was just saying to Bucky that we’re gonna need to call Luis tomorrow to help us find out more about this Hydra Inc.”

Peggy groaned. “Fine, I guess he is the best.”

Bucky went over and kissed her. “You know you really love him.”

“I do, he’s great, but his stories drive me nuts.”

“Well, we need his help, so as far as I’m concerned he can tell as many stories as he likes as long as he gets us information,” Steve said decidedly.

Bucky nodded. They needed to finish this case soon, before something worse happened.


	11. Chapter 11

They coordinated with Thor the next day so that they all arrived at the same time, and walked together up to the office. When they got inside, Thor started sorting through the mail, stopping suddenly when he came to a small envelope. 

“Um. You might all want to see this,” he said urgently, and the trio gathered around him. Peggy gasped when she saw the handwriting of the address.

“Another letter,” Steve said grimly. “Okay. Pass it here, please. I’ll open it.”

Thor gave the letter to Steve, who slit it open with the letter opener on Thor’s desk. He took the letter out and skimmed it, before handing it with a disgusted snort to Bucky. Bucky read the letter twice over.

_DEAR PIS, DO YOU STILL THINK YOU’RE SMART? WE COULD HAVE KILLED BARNES BUT WE CHOSE NOT TO. NEXT TIME YOU WON’T BE SO LUCKY. THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING. BACK OFF, OR WE WILL KILL YOU. INDIVIDUALLY OR ALL TOGETHER, WE’RE NOT FUSSY. STAY OUT OF OUR BUSINESS IF YOU WANT US TO STAY OUT OF YOURS._

Again, it was unsigned, and Peggy gripped Bucky’s hand. “We never should have taken this case,” she murmured, but Bucky squeezed her hand.

“It’s fine, Peggy. This shows that they’re getting nervous. And you know that means they’re more likely to make a mistake if they’re nervous. They know we’re closing in, which must mean we’re on the right track.”

“But what if they get you or Steve?”

Steve hugged her. “They won’t. We’ll be fine, we just have to keep being careful. We don’t split up again, okay? Strength in numbers. Always at least two of us.” Peggy nodded, and Steve took the letter from Bucky. “I’ll put this with the others,” he said, and took it to his office.

Thor looked at them, wide eyed. “You really think we’ll be okay?”

“Yeah, of course,” Bucky lied. The truth was, he didn’t know. All he could do was hope.

***

Just after lunch, Luis arrived at the office. Bucky had been through talking to Thor when the door buzzed.

“Poly Spies, do you have an appointment?” Thor asked through the intercom.

“Hell yeah, I have an appointment! Tell them it’s Luis. They’ll know who I am.”

Bucky pressed the intercom button and spoke into it, grinning. “Sorry, we don’t know any Luis here.”

“Barnes! Let me in, asshole, I thought you wanted my help!”

Bucky laughed, going over and opening the door, and was immediately pounced upon by Luis, who was smiling wide.

“How are you doing, Luis?” Bucky asked, and regretted it immediately.

“Oh, man, okay, so I’m doing some work for this guy, right, and this really hot woman comes in and I’m like, hey, you must be his daughter, right, but it turns out it’s his wife, man. So I’m like, oh, sorry, I didn’t know, and she just laughs. But then I’m talking to my brother who says that his friend Carl told him that his girlfriend told him that her sister told her that this woman, the wife of this guy, is totally sleeping with the pool boy. And I’m like, do I tell him? Is it my business? I mean, I’m working for the guy so it’s really an ethical question about what is right, know what I’m saying?”

“So what did you do?”

“Still deciding.”

“Well,” Bucky said, clapping Luis on the back, “when you decide, you let me know. I wanna know how this turns out.”

“Will do, man. So are the others in their offices?”

“Yeah. Oh, hey, this is our new admin guy, Thor.”

“Thor! Man, and you look the part too, with that long blond hair and muscles. Hey could you bench press me?”

Thor shrugged. “Probably.”

“Man that is _awesome_!”

“Luis, this is great, but we really need your help?” Bucky said pointedly, laughing.

“Oh, yeah, of course. Lead on!”

Bucky took Luis through to Steve’s office, where he and Peggy were sitting together going over some notes. They both grinned as Luis walked in, a huge smile on his face.

“Luis! Good to see you,” Steve said, hugging him.

“You too, Steve. And hey, Peggy!” He hugged her, and she kissed him on the cheek.

“Hi Luis. You look well!”

“Oh hey I’ve been trying this new diet and exercise regime, you think it’s working? It’s hell to keep up with but I’ve been trying so hard and you’d think that gradually introducing exercise would make it easier but man, I kinda wish I’d just thrown myself into the deep end, know what I’m saying?”

“Well whatever it is, you look great,” Peggy said quickly, stemming the flow of words. 

“So what do you need, my friends?” Luis asked, sitting on one of the chairs next to the desk and taking out his laptop.

“We’re trying to find out more about a holding company called Hydra Inc., but it’s proving too tricky for us. You think you can do anything?” Steve asked.

“I’ll do my best for you guys, you know that!” Luis grinned at them and opened his laptop, switching it on. “You change your WiFi password since I was last here?”

“I don’t think so,” Bucky replied.

“You should have! You guys should change that shit at least once every sixty days. That’s how long it’ll take someone good to crack a really solid password so you don’t wanna leave it longer than that.”

“Duly noted.” Bucky smiled encouragingly. “So what’s first?”

Luis gave him a look. “Come on, man, you can’t ask a magician how he does his tricks, you know? Takes out all the magic. Besides, if you knew how I did all this stuff you wouldn’t need me, you know?”

“Aww, Luis, we’ll always need you,” Peggy told him, smiling softly, and Luis looked delighted.

“Peggy, you are my very favorite lady, and if you weren’t already in love with my two best friends I’d have asked you out to dinner a long time ago.” He typed furiously at his keyboard for a few moments, then looked up. “So it’s Hydra like the monster, right?”

“Yeah, Hydra Inc. They own a couple of warehouses down by the docks.”

“Hmm, okay, that could be a way in.” Luis kept typing, occasionally pausing to think, then going back to it. Bucky was on the edge of his seat waiting, although he knew that it was a process and could take a while for Luis to find anything, if he found anything at all.

At length, Luis shook his head.

“Nothing?” Steve asked, disappointed.

“Not exactly nothing, but I can’t find the information you’re looking for.” Luis frowned. “There are so many holding companies that it’s impossible to find your way back to the beginning, especially since they’re all over the world. It’s like these guys are global.”

The trio looked at each other, eyes wide. “Global? Like, a large organization global?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah,” Luis replied. “What the hell have you guys gotten yourselves into?”

“I’m not sure,” Steve said slowly. “But I think whatever it is might be bigger than we first thought.” He looked at Luis. “Are you sure this is a big organization and not just a small one that’s really good at hiding itself?”

Luis shrugged. “Could be either. I can’t tell from the information here. All I can tell is that they have businesses registered in twenty countries.”

Steve sighed. “We knew these guys were professionals, but fuck. This is a whole other level.” He shook his head. “Well, thanks for trying, Luis. We really appreciate it.”

“Hey hey, don’t mention it. I’m always happy to help you guys, you know that. You’re like family.”

Bucky smiled. “Same, Luis. So how’s Carly?”

“Oh man, she’s great!” Luis enthused. Carly was his girlfriend, and the two had been living together for six months. “She’s just the best, you know? I’m thinking about asking her to marry me.”

“Oh, wow, man, congratulations!” Steve said, grinning. “That’s awesome!”

“Yeah. I mean, I don’t know if it’s too soon or what, but I love her so much, you know? I just wanna be with her all the time. She’s so sweet and she always knows what I need, you know what I mean? Like if I’ve had a hard day she always runs me a bubble bath, which I know is a bit girly but I’m totally in touch with my feminine side, you know?”

“That’s always a good thing,” Bucky said, slightly lost but wanting to be encouraging.

“Right? Like some guys are so fragile they can’t take a bubble bath or wear make up or whatever, but me, I rock some eyeliner sometimes and you can’t beat a good bubble bath, or one with those bath bombs, you know what I mean? The scented ones that make you smell really good? Sometimes they have glitter in them too and that’s a pain in the ass because it gets everywhere, and I mean everywhere, and you’re still showering it off a week later, but man for that first day it’s amazing. Gotta fight against toxic masculinity in your own way, know what I’m saying?”

“Absolutely,” Steve replied.

“Good for you, Luis,” Peggy added. “I couldn’t agree more.”

“Right? Anyway, I gotta go, got another job to get to—doing a favor for a friend of mine. He got hacked and now he’s got like a million viruses on his laptop so I’m gonna clean it for him. I mean, it’s probably because he’s an idiot if you know what I’m saying, but he’s a friend so I can’t really tell him that. He’s pretty sensitive.”

Bucky stood and hugged Luis, and Luis clapped him on the back. “You take care of yourself, Luis, yeah? And let us know how it goes with Carly.”

“I will do. You three take care of yourselves!”

Bucky showed him out, and Luis said goodbye to Thor before leaving. 

“He seems like a nice guy,” Thor said quietly, and Bucky laughed.

“Luis? He’s the best. We’ve known him for years, now, pretty much since we started the business. He’s helped us out a lot over the years. He’s an absolute genius but man, can he talk.”

Thor’s lips twitched. “Yeah, I got that feeling.”

“Yeah, but he’s a really good guy so you just have to be able to pick out the point of the story from all the words. He’s a really smart guy about a lot of things, not just computers—art, literature, all that stuff. But like I say, there are always a lot of words around the main story, but you learn to hear the important stuff under the noise.”

“So how did you guys meet?”

Bucky shrugged. “We needed a computer expert, he got recommended to us. I’m glad he did, he’s one of the best, and a great guy.”

Thor nodded. “So how’s the case going?”

“Ugh, we’ve kinda hit a bit of a wall. Don’t worry, though, we’ll figure it out.” He paused. “By the way, what’s the tally of Polly’s Pies calls so far today?”

Thor looked at his notebook and grinned. “Six and counting. They really need someone at directory assistance who understands nuances.”

“They really do. Like surely they’re more popular than PIs anyway?” Bucky shook his head. “People.”

“You guys need anything filed or anything?”

“Nah, not right now. You just hang out and we’ll call if we need you.”

“Awesome.”

Bucky went back through to Steve’s office and sighed. “So what’s our next move?”

Steve looked down at his notes. “I think we should look more into Natasha Black. What do you say we take a trip to talk to her former employers?”

Bucky and Peggy both grinned. Bucky knew what he expected, and if he was right, they’d have their main suspect.


	12. Chapter 12

They were getting ready to go when the phone rang, and Bucky grabbed it. 

“Hello?”

_“Barnes? It’s Tony Stark.”_

“Hey, Mr Stark, what’s up?”

_“Can you all come over ASAP? I’ve something I want to show you.”_

“Sure, we’ll be right there.”

Bucky ended the call and Steve looked at him questioningly. 

“What did Stark want?”

Bucky frowned. “He wanted us to go over there ASAP. Sounded serious.”

“Then let’s go,” Steve said, and they headed out. They walked with Thor down to his car, then jumped in their own, driving to Stark Tower. 

When they arrived, Stark met them downstairs. “Thank god you’re here,” he said in a rush. “Quick, come with me.”

They followed him into the elevator, up to the residence, and Stark ushered them into the living room. On the table was a familiar looking envelope. 

“Another letter?” Steve asked quietly, and Stark nodded. 

“It came today. No postmark at all. They’re not even pretending any more.”

Steve opened the letter and read it out. 

“Tony Stark: what did we tell you about going for help? PIs count too. We’ve warned them, now we’re warning you to stay out of our business or we will make you sorry. We will not hesitate to take Pepper again, and this time she won’t come back. Fire your PIs and stop looking for us or you will regret it.” Steve looked up at Stark. “It’s your call, Tony. What do you want?”

“I want those bastards found, and I want them dealt with,” Stark replied through gritted teeth. “No one is going to be permitted up here except Rhodey and Happy. They’re the only two I trust.”

“Good call.” Steve frowned. “I would suggest that neither of you leave the residence unless absolutely necessary until we’ve caught whoever did this. We think we might have a lead, but it could be nothing.”

“Who do you suspect?” Stark asked. 

Steve shook his head. “We can’t tell you that. But as soon as we have anything concrete you’ll know.”

When they had left, new letter tucked away in Steve’s inner pocket, Bucky looked at Steve questioningly. “Why haven’t we told him there were definitely two letter writers?” he asked. 

“He has enough to worry about right now. Besides, we need to figure out this mystery first before we try to find out who sent the original.”

“Okay, that sounds sensible. So what now?”

“Back to the office to file this letter, then out to check up on Ms Black’s references.”

They picked up the list of names and addresses and headed out again. The first address was upstate, about an hour’s drive from the city. When they arrived, Steve knocked on the door. 

An old woman answered. “Can I help you?” she asked, peeking through the gap in the door with the security chain on. 

“Hello, ma’am,” Steve said gently. “We’re private investigators, and we wanted to talk to a Mrs Arnold about her former assistant, Natasha Black?”

The woman looked confused. “I’m Mrs Arnold, but I’ve never heard of this Natasha Black.”

“Is there another Mrs Arnold at this residence?”

“Oh, my dear boy, no. It’s just me and my daughter, who is of course Ms Arnold, and we’ve lived here since she was born.” She looked at Steve curiously. “Who is this Natasha Black?”

Steve shook his head, smiling. “Apparently not who she says she is. Thank you very much. We won’t take up any more of your time.”

As the trio walked back to the car, Bucky whistled. “Where to next? Are we gonna bother checking the others?”

Steve nodded. “She might have only lied about one reference to make herself look better. We’ll check the others too.”

Mr Herd had never encountered a Natasha Black, however, nor had Mr Seely. As they left Mr Seely’s residence, they grinned at each other. 

“I think we’ve found our suspect,” Peggy said. 

“I hope so,” Steve responded. “The sooner we get this case done with, the better I’ll sleep.”

By the time they got back to the city, it was too late to go to Stark Tower, so the trio wrote up their notes and filed them before heading home for a well deserved rest. 

***

The following morning, on their way to the office, there were several cop cars and a couple of fire trucks outside the burned out husk of Polly’s Pies. They all gasped as they went past. 

“Oh my god,” Bucky said, having a sudden brainwave. “Pull the car over!”

Steve did so, and Bucky ran back to where a cop was condoning the area off.

“You can’t come through here,” the cop said sternly, but Bucky shook his head. 

“I need to ask you a question, officer,” he said quickly. “I need to know… was this an accident? Or was it arson?”

The cop narrowed his eyes. “I’m sorry, son, but that’s classified.”

Bucky shook his head. “No, I mean… I’m a PI, and we’re currently working on a case and if this was arson, I think it might be related.”

The cop stared. “Why the hell would anyone burn down a pie store unless it was for insurance?”

“I think it was a mistake,” Bucky said grimly, hearing his partners walk up behind him. “I think this fire might have been meant for Poly Spies. I think it was meant for us.”

***

The next few hours were spent at the police station giving a statement. The cop had admitted that arson was in fact suspected, given the overwhelming smell of accelerant when they had arrived, and they insisted that the trio tell them everything. 

“I’m sorry, but we have to abide by client confidentiality,” Steve said for the fourth time, and although his tone was patient Bucky could tell he was getting ready to snap. “All we can tell you is that we and our client have received threatening letters, and we’re pretty sure that whoever they hired to burn down our office got their wires crossed and burned down Polly’s Pies instead.”

“Can we see these threatening letters?” the cop interviewing them asked. 

“No, because they all mention our client’s name. I’m sorry, officer. We can’t help you.”

“You do realize you’re impeding an investigation?”

Steve shook his head. “No, we’re not. This is just a theory, although we’re pretty sure we’re right. So you need to do your job, we’ll do ours, and if it turns out we’re right and catch whoever did this then we’ll hand them over to you.”

The cop glared, but Steve just gave him a level look back.

Bucky had never been quite so turned on in his life.

“Fine,” the cop said at length, “but if I find you meddling in our investigation in any way—”

“You won’t,” Steve replied shortly. “Is that everything?”

“For now,” the cop responded with a sneer.

As soon as they were back out in the fresh New York air, Bucky hummed thoughtfully.

“So since Thor isn’t in today, is there any point in going back to the office?”

“Why?” Steve asked, and Bucky smirked.

“Because seeing you being all authoritative in there got me really fucking hot.”

“Me too,” Peggy confessed.

Steve looked at them both, then grinned. “Well, I guess we probably should take the day off just in case someone tries anything at the office again…”

***

As they lay in bed afterwards, Bucky on his back with both Peggy and Steve lying on his chest, he frowned. 

“If they’re willing to burn us down…” he began, and Steve kissed his chest.

“I know. It’s a worry. Hopefully since the police are involved though they won’t try again.”

“But what if they do?” Peggy asked softly. “Or worse, what if they come to our home?”

Steve leaned up on his elbow. “Do you guys want to drop the case? Because we will if you’re so worried.”

Bucky shook his head. “I don’t think they’d stop, even if we did drop the case. We know too much now.”

“Bucky’s right,” Peggy added. “We know about Hydra Inc., we know about Natasha, we know so much. I don’t think they’re going to leave us alone now, even if we back off.”

“So what _do_ you want to do?” Steve asked.

“Catch these sons of bitches and make them pay,” Bucky replied, shrugging. “We need to get them locked up so they can’t hurt anyone ever again.”

As they lay there together, Steve’s phone began to buzz, and he answered it quickly.

“Hey, Luis, what’s up? … Slow down, what? … What do you mean you think you’ve found something? … No, we’re not at the office, we’re at home. … Okay, see you in five.” Steve ended the call and grinned. “Get dressed. Luis is gonna be here any minute, and he has some information for us about Hydra Inc.”

***

When Luis arrived, he hugged each of them. “Why aren’t you guys in the office? Also did you hear what happened to Polly’s Pies? Man, I am so sad about that, I used to get the best banana cream pie from there that was like, so good. And my brother, he likes the key lime pie from there but I’m like, nah, man, gotta go with banana cream, but he don’t listen anyway—”

“Luis, that’s why we’re not in the office today,” Bucky interrupted. “We think they wanted us burned down, not Polly’s Pies.”

Luis’s eyes widened. “No!”

“Yeah, which is why we really need to catch these guys. So what have you found?”

“Okay, so it bothered me that I couldn’t find anything for you guys so I did more digging, and then I tried something else—I won’t go into the details, I know you guys aren’t technical—and there it was! I found something!”

“What did you find?”

“Hydra Inc. is owned by a guy called Alexander Pierce, but like you say, it’s a holding company. I managed to trace it back and back and back and I think I’ve found the original company.”

“And what is it?”

Luis grinned. “Hydra Inc. It just loops around, but I’m pretty sure that Hydra Inc. is the original company. So I looked into their financials. Nothing obviously illegal, but something ain’t right, you know what I’m saying? There’s money coming in, and it’s accounted for, but it’s _too much_ for what they’re saying it was for.” He paused. “Does that help?”

Peggy kissed him on the cheek. “You’re a legend, Luis.”

“Aww, hey,” Luis said, blushing. “I just do what I can for my friends, you know?”

“We do, and we’re really grateful,” Peggy told him. “Now for your own safety, please don’t tell anyone else what you’ve found out for us, okay? Don’t tell anyone that you’ve been looking in to Hydra Inc. because we don’t want you to be in danger.”

“My lips are sealed, gorgeous. Unless you want to lay another smacker on me.”

Peggy laughed. “Don’t chance your luck.”

“I know, I know, you could kick my ass. I’d probably enjoy it.” Luis grinned. “So I helped?”

“Yeah,” Steve said. “Yeah, you definitely helped.”

When Luis was gone, the trio sat down on their sofa together to discuss the new development in the case.

“First things first, we need to find out about this Alexander Pierce,” Bucky said. “Then we need to look and see if we can link him to Natasha Black.”

“That’s probably not even her real name, though,” Steve mused. “You remember what Barton said?”

“True, but still. We might be able to find something.”

At that moment, Steve’s phone buzzed again.

“Hey Tony. … Wait, what? We’re on our way.” Steve looked at the others, eyes wide. “That was Tony. He and Pepper are at the hospital. Natasha has been attacked.”


	13. Chapter 13

“What?” Bucky blurted out. “Why?”

“I don’t know, but I intend to find out,” Steve said, mouth set in a firm line.

When they reached the hospital, they found the ward Natasha was being held on, and discovered Stark and Pepper outside her door.

“Some men in suits arrived about a half hour ago,” Stark murmured. “They’ve been in there ever since. What the hell is going on?”

“We’re gonna find that out now,” Steve responded, and the trio barged into the hospital room.

Natasha was lying in bed, head bandaged and face bruised, her left arm in a cast. Two men, smart suits and shoes, stood next to the bed, and raised their eyebrows when they saw Steve, Bucky and Peggy.

“Who the hell are you?” one of the men asked.

“We’re private investigators, and we have reason to believe that the woman in the bed is not actually who she says she is.”

Natasha sighed. “Go get some coffee guys. Take five. I’ll be fine with these three.”

“So?” Steve said sternly. 

Natasha rolled her eyes. “You haven’t figured it out yet? I’m FBI. Undercover.”

The trio exchanged glances. “Why were you undercover at Stark Industries?” Bucky asked. 

“Because there was chatter that Stark might be targeted by a kidnapping ring. We’ve been after these guys for a while now. I thought maybe if I was undercover when they made their attempt I could either stop it or catch them after.” She smiled ruefully. “Guess how well that turned out.”

“Why didn’t you tell us?” Steve asked, fists clenching until his knuckles went white. “We’ve been thinking you were our prime suspect because we knew you weren’t who you said you were.”

Natasha sighed. “Is that because of Clint? He’s an asshole. He knew who I was—he used to work for the FBI as a consultant before he went into personal security—and he kept dropping hints to people.”

“He did say something about it, but we visited all your references and none of them had heard of you.”

“What?” Natasha burst out laughing. “You actually visited them all? Wow, never thought of that one, we always assumed people would call or email. That was a good one.”

“So what’s your real name?”

She rolled her eyes. “My real name is Natasha. Natasha Romanoff.”

“So what happened to you?”

“I guess Clint said the wrong thing to the wrong person,” she replied, sighing. “If the kidnappers have infiltrated the household—and I’m pretty sure they have, given what’s been happening—then all it would take is for Clint to get drunk and run his mouth off in front of that person and I’m in deep shit. Which of course he probably did, which is why I’m in here.”

“Can you tell us about the attack?” Bucky asked. 

Natasha gave him a half smile. “What I can remember of it, yeah. I was in the Tower parking garage, going towards my car, when I saw a hooded figure beside it. I was so focused on catching whoever it was I didn’t hear the footsteps behind me.” She frowned. “I should have been more aware of my surroundings. It’s what I’ve been trained for. I’m kinda mad at myself for letting this happen.”

“So there were two of them?” Peggy asked. 

“Yeah,” Natasha replied. “Or at least two anyway. I just wish I could have seen their faces.”

“Who has access to the parking garage?”

“Only employees. You have to have an access pass.” Her eyes widened. “If you can figure out who used their access pass to get into the parking garage at 12.50 p.m. then you should have an answer!”

“We’ll talk to Tony now. Thanks, Natasha,” Steve said. “I hope you get better soon.”

As soon as they were outside, Stark stalked up to them. 

“Well, what happened?”

“You need to speak to her about that. I’m sure she’ll tell you everything. Right now, we need to know who used their passes to get into the Tower parking garage around 12.50 p.m. today.”

“No problem.” Stark took out his phone and typed furiously for a few minutes. “Uh, Natasha, and about five minutes before her, Pietro Maximoff.” Stark gaped at them. “You don’t think…?”

“We have to explore all avenues. Is it okay if we go back to the Tower to talk to Mr Maximoff?”

“Go for it. I’ll call Rhodey, tell him to let you in.”

“Thanks, Tony.”

The trio left the hospital, heading straight towards Stark Tower. When they arrived, Colonel Rhodes met them at the door. 

“Tony said you need to speak to Pietro Maximoff?”

“Yeah,” Steve replied. “Can you take us to him, please?”

“I’ll take you to one of the meeting rooms and bring him to you,” Colonel Rhodes told them, and they nodded in agreement. 

When Pietro was brought into the room, he was pale, but clearly trying to act normally. “Can I help you?” he asked politely. 

Steve immediately cut to the chase. “Your access card was used to access the parking garage five minutes before Natasha was attacked there,” he said, and Pietro’s eyes widened, all pretense of calm falling away. 

“It wasn’t me! I swear it wasn’t me! I lost my pass, ask my sister! Ask Scott! They both know because they’ve had to let me into the lab all day!”

“When did you lose it?”

“This morning! I had it up until I came to speak to Mr Stark in his office at around ten a.m. But he wasn’t there. Then I remembered that he was on lockdown in his residence so I went back to the lab. That’s when I discovered it was gone.”

“Did you pass anyone on the way?”

“Um, the cleaning staff, the maintenance guy, Clint… I think that was everyone.”

Bucky had a sudden thought, and scribbled down a question on his notepad. Steve glanced over and read it, looking thoughtful. 

He turned back to Pietro. “And you’re sure that you definitely didn’t have it when you got back to the lab?”

“I’m sure!”

“Okay. Thank you for your time, Mr Maximoff.”

Pietro nodded and scampered away like a frightened rabbit. Steve picked up Bucky’s notebook, humming. 

“Clint Barton?”

“Think about it,” Bucky said. “He knew about Natasha’s identity, he has access to all areas, he’d know Pepper’s routine…”

Peggy nodded. “It makes a weird kind of sense. We’d better keep an eye on him.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed. “In the meantime, let’s ask Colonel Rhodes if there’s any CCTV footage.”

***

“Of course there is,” Colonel Rhodes scoffed when asked. “There’s CCTV pretty much everywhere here.”

“Have you checked it?”

Colonel Rhodes nodded. “Both assailants wore masks.”

“Did you check the CCTV of any of the outer doors?”

“No,” Colonel Rhodes said slowly. “Should I have?”

“It’s possible that the second assailant came in from outside, and was let in by the first.”

Colonel Rhodes’s eyes widened, and he immediately found the footage. There, on camera, were two masked men. 

“Neither of those could be Maximoff,” Bucky murmured. “Too bulky. But you know who that one could be?”

The trio exchanged glances. The first man was exactly the right build to be Barton. 

“Can we speak to Barton?” Steve asked casually. “Maybe he spotted something.”

Colonel Rhodes gave them a curious look. “I doubt it, but you can talk to him if you want.”

He brought Barton to them, and left them to it. Barton, large coffee cup in hand, leaned back in his chair and put his feet up on the security console. 

“You wanted to speak to me?” he drawled. 

“Mr Barton, we have reason to believe that you were aware of Natasha’s identity from the start.”

Barton rolled his eyes. “Like I didn’t drop enough hints for you guys. I practically told you she wasn’t ‘Natasha Black’ or whatever.” He took a sip of his coffee. “So what?”

“I just find it interesting that you’re the only one who knew about her secret,” Steve said blandly. 

Barton immediately went on the defensive. “Look, I don’t know what you’re driving at, okay? I had nothing to do with any of this. I do my job, I drink enough coffee to make it bearable, I keep to myself as much as possible. The fact that I enjoy winding up Romanoff is a completely separate thing.”

“Pietro Maximoff’s security card was used to access the parking garage during the time of Natasha’s attack,” Steve said suddenly. 

“So? Surely that makes him a suspect then, not me?”

“Maximoff claims he lost his card somewhere around ten a.m. and that he passed you in the corridor around that time.”

“Wait a second, are you trying to pin this on me?” Barton laughed hollowly. “Okay, I may not buy into that whole ‘loyal employee’ crap, but I swear I don’t hate either Tony or Pepper enough to be involved in this. And I definitely wouldn’t beat up Natasha. I like her too much, all evidence to the contrary.” He took a deep breath. “Okay, say Pietro lost his card. He could have just dropped it, and anyone passing through could have picked it up.”

“Did you tell anyone else about Natasha’s identity?”

Barton shrugged sheepishly. “I might have got drunk and ranted to a few people about how there was more to her than met the eye and I wouldn’t be surprised if she was a cop. I never said I knew she was.”

“Who did you say this to?”

“I don’t know… Lang, the Maximoff twins, Wilson, maybe the cleaner or someone was hanging around? That was it.”

“So we’re back to the Maximoffs,” Steve murmured. 

“But it couldn’t have been him,” Bucky reminded him. 

“Unless he disguised his build,” Peggy said, and Steve and Bucky looked at her in awe. 

“I can’t believe we didn’t think of that,” Steve said with a laugh. 

“So am I cleared?” Barton asked eagerly. 

“Not even close,” Steve told him. “But we’re done for now.”

Barton nodded and left, with decidedly less swagger than when he’d entered. 

“I feel like we’re going around in circles,” Bucky said, sighing, and Steve nodded. 

“Yeah, we need to take a break. See if putting the wind up those two has spooked either of them.”

There was a knock on the door, and Colonel Rhodes peeked his head around. “So what’s the verdict?”

“Inconclusive, as of yet,” Steve replied. “But I think we’re getting closer.”

Colonel Rhodes nodded. “So you suspect Clint, huh?” None of the trio even tried to deny it, and Colonel Rhodes sighed. “I know he’s kind of an asshole, but he is trustworthy. I don’t believe he’d do anything to hurt either Tony or Pepper, or do anything that would cause them to get hurt by someone else.”

“Thanks, Colonel,” Steve said. “We’re gonna go, see if we can piece this thing together. But we really appreciate your time.”

Colonel Rhodes shrugged. “Tony Stark is my best friend. I know how he treated you when you were kids; he told me all about that. But he grew up, and now he’s loyal to a fault. And I’m loyal to him too. Anything you need to solve this case, I’m willing to give.”

Steve nodded stiffly. “Thanks.”

Bucky squeezed Steve’s hand under the table, and Steve shot him a small smile before they all got up to leave. 

When they got back to their apartment, the three of them collapsed onto the sofa. 

“So who do you think it is?” Steve asked, languidly stroking the back of Bucky’s neck, right on his hairline. 

Bucky shivered. “No idea. Could easily have been either of them. Or even Lang.”

“But it probably wasn’t Pietro in the surveillance footage,” Peggy reminded them. 

“True. Which leaves us with Barton or Lang, but somehow I don’t think it’s either of them.” Steve frowned, brow crinkling. “There must be something we’re missing.”

“Let’s think about it tomorrow,” Bucky said, stretching his arms above his head. “Right now I want food and I wanna fuck, not necessarily in that order.”

Steve and Peggy both laughed. “Sounds like a good idea,” Peggy said. “Probably fuck first, though, so we don’t get indigestion.”

Bucky leaned in to kiss her. “Is it weird that you being practical gets me hot?” he murmured. 

“Come on.” Steve pulled them both up, kissing each of them in turn. “Race you to the bedroom!”

The trio ran for the bedroom, laughing, and Bucky couldn’t help but feel joy at being with the two people he loved most in the world. Whatever was going on with the case, they’d figure it out, but right now it was all about them.


	14. Chapter 14

As soon as they arrived at the office the following morning, the trio immediately congregated in Steve’s office with all their case notes, trying to piece it all together.

“Obviously it’s not Natasha,” Bucky said, “so we can cross her off the list.”

“Right. That means we’re left with Barton, the Maximoffs, and Lang as our main suspects.” Steve frowned. “But it couldn’t have been Pietro in that footage, so can we cross them off the list?”

“We have to allow for the fact that he might have lied about when he lost his pass. He could have given it to an accomplice before the work day even started,” Bucky reasoned.

“Good point.” 

“And he could have made himself look bulky too, remember?” Peggy reminded them.

“Oh yeah. Shit.” Steve sighed. “Okay. So let’s look at Lang. He’s actually working for Hank Pym to sabotage Stark’s research into a power source. But could he also be part of the kidnapping gang?”

“I would say no, unless he’d been blackmailed into it somehow,” Peggy said, and Bucky nodded.

“Agreed.”

“So we’ll move him down the list,” Steve said. “Okay, then we have Barton. Colonel Rhodes vouches for him personally, so can we take him off the list?”

“I don’t know if we can remove him completely, though,” Peggy said, pulling at her hair in frustration. “Colonel Rhodes might have just been taken in by him.”

“That’s true, but is he a likely suspect?”

“About as likely as Lang, I’d say,” Bucky mused.

“Which leaves the Maximoffs as our prime suspects.” Steve banged his fist on the table suddenly, making Bucky and Peggy jump. “I just feel like we’re missing something obvious. Why did one of Pepper’s kidnappers wear a skull and crossbones design when the others were dressed completely in black? Why did they send those threatening letters, basically warning Stark that they were going to do something? How did they get Pietro’s access card? How did they find out Natasha was FBI? How did they know we were at the docks investigating? There are too many things that don’t add up.”

“Well, I don’t know about anything else,” Bucky said slowly, “but the letters we said before were probably to put the blame on the original letter writer if that person was caught, right?”

“Okay, so that’s one thing, but then who was the original letter writer?”

“I have my suspicions,” Peggy said, “but nothing concrete.”

Steve nodded. “I’m the same.” He frowned. “It bothers me that they found us at the docks, though, and attacked Bucky there. How did they know? Do they have surveillance on the warehouse? Was it a coincidence? Have they tapped our phones somehow?”

Bucky shook his head. “We checked our phones for bugs, remember? It’s more likely that it was a coincidence. If they had surveillance on the warehouse then they probably wouldn’t have got there on time, unless they were nearby anyway.”

“True.” Steve’s phone rang at that moment, cutting through the tension, and Steve answered it. “Hello? … Yeah, send her through.” He took a deep breath. “Natasha is here.”

The door opened, and Thor showed Natasha into the room, before leaving to go back to his desk.

Bucky got up and shook Natasha’s uninjured hand. “Hey, how are you feeling?”

“Better, thanks,” Natasha replied. “Once the bruises are gone and I’m back to my pretty self I’ll feel great. How’s the investigation going?”

Steve shrugged. “We’ve hit a bit of a wall.”

“What if I was to share some information with you?”

Steve narrowed his eyes. “We can’t involve the FBI. You know that.”

“You wouldn’t be,” Natasha retorted. “I’m here as a private citizen who just happens to have access to the FBI database.”

“Go on.”

Bucky motioned for her to sit, and she did so. “Okay, so who’s on your list right now?”

“The Maximoff twins, Scott Lang, and Clint Barton.”

“Well you can take Barton off the list. He’s an asshole, but he’s not a criminal.” She gave them a curious look. “Why are the others on your list?”

The trio exchanged glances. “We can’t tell you about Lang, but the twins have a history that apparently didn’t come up in the background check. Their parents were killed by a Stark Industries bomb.”

Natasha’s eyes widened and she whistled. “Wow, I didn’t know that. That would definitely be a motive for revenge, but where would they find the contacts to get in with a kidnapping gang?”

“Maybe they were approached by someone who knew about their past.”

“Could be.” 

Steve sighed. “Anyway, I’m hungry. Can’t work on an empty stomach. Anyone else want lunch?” 

The other three raised their hands, and Steve wrote down their orders. “I’ll go with Thor today. Pretty sure it’s my turn.”

Steve left, and Peggy and Bucky sighed.

“What’s up?” Natasha asked.

“We started getting threatening letters too, so now when one of us goes off somewhere we’re pretty on edge,” Bucky explained. 

“You got threatening letters too?”

“Yeah, and they burned down Polly’s Pies by mistake.”

Natasha stared at them. “I heard about that! I didn’t make the connection, though. Is that why he’s going with Thor to pick up the sandwiches?”

“Yes,” Peggy replied. “No one goes anywhere alone. We figure strength in numbers is the way to go.”

“Yeah, that’s a good plan.” Natasha sat back, wincing. “Ugh, fuck those guys who attacked me. Pretty sure these bruised ribs aren’t going away any time soon.”

“So who would your money be on for the kidnapper?” Bucky asked curiously.

Natasha frowned. “Not sure. I would have said me, of course—I was definitely the most suspicious. But aside from me, I think you’re right—the twins sound like the most likely suspects given their history. But then why now? Why wait so long? They’ve worked for Stark Industries for a few years now.”

“Maybe they were just biding their time.”

“Maybe. Or maybe they were waiting on the right kind of revenge.”

“But then that begs the question—who wrote the first letter?” Peggy said slowly.

“The first letter?”

“There were two different letter writers,” Bucky explained.

“Oh my god, really? That does add a certain complication. Unless the twins took it in turns?”

Bucky shook his head. “No, the first letter was written by one person, and all the others were written by someone else. If they’d taken it in turns, there would have been more by the first letter writer.”

“True. I really don’t like this case at all,” Natasha confessed. “There’s something really awful about it. Aside of course from the fact I got beat up, which is never a fun time, but what they did to Pepper was needless cruelty. We’re dealing with dangerous people here.”

“Yeah.” Bucky looked at his watch. “Where the hell are Steve and Thor? Surely they should have been back by now.”

Peggy rolled her eyes. “They haven’t been that long, and you know what the lines can get like at lunch time at the busier places.”

“True.” Bucky stretched his arms above his head. “Fuck, I’m tired. This case has been pretty draining.”

“I know what you mean,” Peggy said with a yawn. “I lay awake half the night wondering about it.”

“You should have woken us up. I’m sure we could have found some way to tire you out.” Bucky leered at Peggy, and Natasha cleared her throat. 

“Um, I’m right here?”

“Sorry,” Bucky lied. “I take it you’re single?”

“Why would you assume that?” Natasha asked, annoyance written across her face. 

“Just a vibe I get. I guess it’s difficult to date when you’re an undercover FBI agent.”

“It is,” Natasha confessed, slumping a little. “I went out on a couple of dates with Sam—you know, Pepper’s PA?—but I felt bad about dating him when I wasn’t being, you know, myself so I broke it off.”

“You should call him when this is all over,” Peggy said. 

“You think? I mean, he did send me flowers when I was in hospital,” Natasha mused. “Really pretty ones, too. Blood red roses. They’re my favorite. I don’t even know how he knew that, I must have mentioned it in passing and he remembered.”

“Oh then definitely! He obviously still cares about you. I’d go for it—”

“ _Ahem?_ ”

“—if I didn’t have two wonderful boyfriends already,” Peggy finished, giving Bucky a pointed look, then winking at Natasha. “Sam is really attractive.”

“He is. And he’s sweet, and funny, and really smart, you know? I like him a lot. I just don’t know how he’ll react to the fact I lied to him about who I am.”

“If he’s really a good guy then he’ll understand,” Bucky said sagely. “You were doing your job, you know?” 

“I know. You know what? I think I will go for it. Take my mind off what a failure I am as an agent. I can’t believe I let those guys get the drop on me—I’m a highly trained agent! I can take down anyone! They just somehow managed to get me on an off moment I guess.”

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Bucky said soothingly. “It happens to the best of us.” He looked at his watch again. “Okay, seriously, where are those two? I’m gonna message Steve, see where they’ve got to.”

He typed a quick message to Steve and hit send. A few moments later, his phone buzzed and he looked at it. His eyes widened and he cursed. 

“Shit. Oh, shit, Peggy! They’ve got him!”

“What?”

“The kidnappers!” Bucky said urgently. “They’ve got Steve!”

At that moment, Thor burst in, a lanky dark haired man in tow. The other man had bruises covering his face, and he looked like he hadn’t washed in weeks. 

“I’m sorry,” Thor gasped out. “I’m so sorry, but they’ve got Steve, and it’s all my fault, I’m sorry!”


	15. Chapter 15

“What do you mean it’s all your fault?” Peggy asked. “It’s not like you could have stopped them.”

“No, but.” Thor paused, face scrunching like he was about to cry. “I led him straight to them.”

Bucky stood so quickly his chair fell behind him. “You _what_.”

“This is my brother, Loki,” Thor said miserably. “They took him, told me I had to get a job with you guys and feed them information if I ever wanted to see him again. We’re actually from a pretty rich and well known family, but they didn’t want our money. We’re nowhere near as rich as Tony Stark, though. They knew that Stark and Steve knew each other years ago and they figured Stark would come here for help, so they made me apply for the job. When I got it, I figured I was one step closer to getting my brother back.”

“You fucking traitor,” Bucky yelled, swinging. He managed to clock Thor across the cheek, then went to swing again, but Peggy held him back. 

“Bucky, this isn’t helping,” she said, her voice shaking, and Bucky turned to her, gathering her in his arms. 

Natasha stood. “Can you describe any of them?”

Both Thor and Loki shook their heads. “They always wore masks. They were really careful about that.”

“Can you tell us anything about where you were held?” Natasha asked Loki, who shrugged. 

“It was some kind of basement or vault,” he said in a clipped English accent. “That’s all I know. I don’t know where, except it took us a long drive to get from there to where they pushed me out of the van and grabbed your friend.”

“Do you know exactly how long?”

“I wasn’t exactly in a position to time it by my watch,” Loki snarked. 

“We have to find him. We have to save him,” Bucky babbled in a panic. “Who knows what they’ll do to him?”

At that moment, Bucky’s phone rang and he picked it up. Before he even had a chance to say hello, Luis’s cheerful voice came down the line. 

_“Hey, hey, friend! What’s happening?”_

“Steve’s been kidnapped,” Bucky said in a rush. “What’s up?”

_“Oh man, is my timing perfect or is my timing perfect? Got some more information for you guys. I’ll be there in five.”_

“Oh god, thank you, Luis!” Bucky ended the call. “Luis is on his way. He’s found more information.”

“Thank god,” Peggy said, collapsing back into her chair. “Hopefully it helps us find him.”

“Can you tell us anything else?” Natasha asked Loki. “Any sounds, any smells from where you were kept?”

Loki thought for a moment. “There was a lot of heavy traffic, but that could be anywhere. Sometimes when they opened the door it smelled like… like yeast? Or freshly baked bread?”

“Bread?” Bucky was nonplussed. “Okay, I’m gonna go to reception to let Luis in when he gets here. You guys keep brainstorming.”

He marched through to the front desk, pacing around the room until the buzzer went off. When he opened the door to Luis, Bucky felt like he could have wept with relief. 

“Hey, man! How you holding up?” Luis asked. “This is so tough. I remember what my brother’s best friend was like when his dog went missing, man, he was frantic, then he starts getting these letters about how the dog was gonna die unless he paid two hundred dollars. Turned out to be a hoax—Fluffy came back by himself one day—but man was my brother’s best friend so worried! And then this other time—”

“Luis!” Bucky interrupted urgently. “What did you find out?”

“Oh! Right, yeah, sorry, man. Come on, I’ll show you on my laptop.”

Bucky took Luis through to Steve’s office where the others were waiting, and got him set up at Steve’s desk with his laptop. 

“So what have you found?”

“Okay, so I was looking up this Alexander Pierce, okay? Everything seems to be above board—upstanding member of the community, supports the local chapter of Boy Scouts as well as all the charities, man, like so many charities, but then I did some more digging and it turns out this Pierce had an affair when he’d been married three years.”

“How did you find that?” Bucky asked, amazed. 

“He was listed as the father on the birth certificate of their kid, man! Which was great news for us, but not for him if you see what I mean. This kid grew up without a dad—no stepfather or nothing—but then when the kid was twenty four he got sent down for grand theft auto and assault. The kid now works for Pierce at Hydra Inc.—he’s the Vice President.”

“What’s his name?”

“Brock Rumlow. Sound familiar?”

Bucky shook his head. “Not even remotely. Does it say where this Rumlow lives? Maybe we should pay him a visit.”

“Not currently, but last known address is in Long Island.”

Bucky’s ears pricked up. Why did that ring a bell? “Where in Long Island?”

“301 Patchogue-Holbrook Road.”

“What?” Bucky’s eyes widened and he scribbled through the paperwork on Steve’s desk. “Come on, come on, where are you?” he muttered to himself. “Ahah, got it.” He stared at the sheet of paper in his hand. “That’s the address that Christian Bonns gave as his current address,” he said quietly. 

“Christian Bonns? The maintenance guy?”

Bucky looked at Peggy. “It could be a coincidence, but I doubt it. How many people told us he was a creep? How many people said they didn’t trust him? We should have listened to them!”

Peggy put a soothing hand on his arm. “We weren’t to know. It’s not like anything flagged him up as prime suspect material. He seemed like a normal, if slightly odd, guy.”

Bucky’s eyes widened. “Oh my god.” He laughed hollowly. “Christian Bonns. Chris Bonns. Crossbones. The skull and crossbones on the kidnapper. How the fuck could we have been so stupid?”

“Wait, how did you know Crossbones was the alias Rumlow went by in prison?” Luis asked, confused. 

“What?”

“Yeah, man, that’s what the guys in his cellblock called him. He has a big old tattoo of a skull and crossbones on his chest.”

“You got a photograph?”

Luis nodded and brought up a photograph on his screen. There, clear as day, was the maintenance guy.

“We need to track this Rumlow down. Peggy, you come with me. The rest of you, stay here, see if you can find out anything else.”

“No, wait,” Natasha said quickly. “I’ll call in a favor, get someone to take me to Long Island. It’s too far for you to go and come back if you find any information about where Steve is.”

“Thanks, Natasha. Are you sure you’ll be okay doing this? Your arm is broken.”

Natasha waved her unbroken hand in the air dismissively. “As if that could stop me. Don’t you worry about me. You just get Steve back safe and sound.”

Bucky nodded. “Thank you, Natasha. We really appreciate that.” He turned to Luis. “Do you think you can find all the properties that Hydra Inc. owns and rents?”

“Of course, man!” Luis scoffed. “That should be easy. Give me five minutes.”

As Luis typed away on his computer, Bucky approached Thor and Loki. “Did you see which way the vehicle that took Steve drove off in?” he asked. 

Thor nodded. “They seemed to be headed west, from what I could tell, although they may just have done that to throw us off of the scent.”

“Could be. Or could be that they’re idiots.”

“I don’t think they’re idiots, Bucky,” Peggy said quietly. “They’ve got this far without being caught.”

“Yeah, but they’re not gonna get any further. I’m gonna kill those bastards for taking Steve. If they lay one single finger on him…” He trailed off, realizing he was hyperventilating. He took some deep breaths, trying to calm himself. It only half worked. “Anything yet, Luis?” he asked desperately. 

“Almost, man! You can’t rush genius!”

“Well you’re gonna have to go faster if we’re gonna get Steve back,” Bucky muttered. 

Natasha’s phone buzzed, making them all jump. She answered it quickly. “Hello? … Thanks, Brett. I’ll be outside in a second.” She ended the call. “Okay, my ride is here. I’ll keep in touch when I get there, let you know what we find.”

“Thank you, Natasha,” Bucky managed, his voice slightly unsteady, and she gave him a small smile before heading out the door. “Okay. Anything, Luis?”

“Got it!” Luis exclaimed triumphantly. “Okay, wow, that’s a lot of properties. What are we looking for?”

“Something with a basement or vault, near a bakery,” Bucky said quickly. 

Luis typed furiously for a second. “Well, there are five properties with either basements or vaults…” He typed for a few moments more. “Okay, only two of them are near a bakery. One on the corner of 7th Avenue and West 57th Street, and one on East 32nd Street.”

“Fuck,” Bucky swore. “Okay, we’ll go to 7th Avenue first. Luis, can you stay here with these two? Keep them here if you can but let us know if they decide to run away.”

Luis looked uncertain. “Man, I don’t know, I’m not really comfortable with that, you know? Plus they look pretty strong and me, I ain’t got the muscles, know what I’m saying?”

“It’s fine,” Bucky said grimly. “I don’t think they’re gonna go anywhere. Besides, if they don’t stay with you we can just call the cops to track them down. I’m pretty sure the cops would be interested to hear about their part in this fiasco of a case.”

Thor shook his head. “Don’t worry. We’ll stay here.”

Loki frowned. “I’d actually like to get a shower at some point today? Please? I’m pretty sure I smell terrible.”

“You can shower later,” Bucky growled. “Do you or do you not realize that our partner’s life could be at stake here?”

Loki subsided, looking sheepish, and Thor gave Bucky an apologetic look. 

“We’ll stay here,” Thor repeated. 

“Okay,” Bucky said, checking that his pistol was in his holster. “We’re gonna go get Steve back.”

“Are you sure you don’t wanna call the cops for help?” Luis asked, eyes wide. “Sounds like these are a bunch of nasty guys.”

“I’m sure,” Bucky replied grimly. “If there are cops around then I can’t say that killing those sons of bitches was an accident. The fewer witnesses the better.”

He strode out, Peggy close behind him, and jumped in the car, Bucky in the driver’s seat. Bucky’s expression was set, but he shot Peggy a small smile when she gripped his arm as they sped off. Bucky wasn’t a praying kind of guy, but by god he was praying now—praying that they find Steve in time, before those bastards had the time to do anything to him other than question him. 

Bucky cursed as they made their way slowly through the New York traffic. “Sonofabitch!” he yelled, hitting his hands against the steering wheel. “We’d be quicker fucking walking, I swear to god.”

“It’ll be okay,” Peggy said quietly. “It has to be. Steve has to be okay.”

Bucky glanced over at her to see that her eyes were shining with unshed tears. He clutched her hand. “Yeah. He’ll be okay. We’ll reach him in time. Come on, it’s us!”

Peggy smiled wanly, and Bucky stared at the road ahead. They had to get there in time.


	16. Chapter 16

When they arrived at the corner of 7th Avenue and West 57th Street, Bucky pulled the car over and they jumped out, racing towards the building. 

“Shit, it’s locked!” Bucky cursed. “What the fuck?”

“Go around back,” Peggy suggested, and Bucky nodded, running around the back of the building through an alleyway. There was a rather flimsy looking door, and Peggy picked the lock easily, flinging the door open before stepping inside. 

It was dark, so Bucky took his small flashlight from his pocket, shining it around. They made their way through a maze of corridors before finding the door to the basement. Peggy picked that lock too, and Bucky kicked the door open, drawing his pistol. 

It was silent and dark down there too, and there were no voices. Still, on the alert, Bucky and Peggy crept down the stairs to another door. They stood on either side, then nodded at each other and burst through. 

It was empty. 

“Shit fuck goddammit!” Bucky yelled. “They’re not here!”

“They must be at the one on East 32nd Street!”

“I fucking hope so,” Bucky muttered. “Come on, let’s go.”

As they reached the car, Bucky’s phone rang. “Hello?”

_“Hey, Bucky, it’s Natasha. We’ve been to the house, but there’s no one in. He lied about everything. No kids live here. It barely looks lived in at all.”_

“Thanks for letting us know.”

_“You find him yet?”_

“Not yet, but we think we know where he is. I’ll keep you posted.”

_“Okay. Let me know if you need any backup.”_

Bucky paused. “Backup would be good. We’re headed to 29 East 32nd Street.”

_“I’ll call it in. Good luck.”_

“Thanks.”

Bucky ended the call. “Come on,” he said, mouth in a thin line. “Let’s go get our Steve back.”

They sped south to East 32nd Street, weaving in and out of traffic. When they arrived outside, Bucky screeched the car to a stop. There was a guy outside this building, which Bucky took as a good sign. 

“Can I help you?” the guy asked, sneering. 

Bucky smiled, then punched the guy in the stomach, kneeing him in the face when he doubled over. One down. The guard taken care of, Bucky and Peggy drew their guns and slowly opened the door. 

They found themselves in a large atrium of what looked like an old bank, and Bucky put his finger to his lips. Anything they said would echo in this room, and he wanted to have the element of surprise. 

They made their way quietly through the room to the back, and through the double doors. “They’ll probably be in the bank vault,” Bucky whispered, and Peggy nodded. 

They soon reached a set of stairs and tiptoed down them. There was another guard at the door of the vault, who froze when he saw Peggy and Bucky pointing their guns at him. He raised his hands slowly, and Bucky narrowed his eyes, motioning for the guy to get on the ground. 

While Bucky held his gun on the guy, Peggy searched him, taking his gun and holding up a pair of handcuffs. She cuffed the guy’s hands behind his back and stuffed a handkerchief from her pocket into his mouth. Bucky dragged him over to one side, and they opened the bank vault quickly. 

Bucky just had time to spot Steve inside, tied to a chair, when the shooting began. The first shot missed him by about an inch, and he ducked. 

“So you found us!” a voice shouted, and Bucky guessed that was Pierce. It sounded like an older guy. “Not that it’ll do you much good. We’ll just kill all of you.”

“Not so fast, Pierce,” Bucky yelled back. “We know everything. We know about you, and your son Rumlow, or should I say Crossbones?”

“My, my.” Pierce sounded impressed. “You have done your research. You’re much better than I would have expected. Private investigators don’t usually impress me much, but you three really know what you’re doing. I wonder how you found us and know so much about us? Not that it matters. You’re not going to have much of a chance of telling anyone about this when you’re all dead.”

“You really think we’re gonna let that happen?”

“I think you’re going to put your guns down before we kill Mr Rogers,” Pierce said, and Bucky swallowed, his heart suddenly in his throat. 

“Okay, we’ll drop our guns. Just please, don’t kill him.” He nodded to Peggy and they both dropped their pistols on the floor, kicking them forwards. 

A handsome older man stepped forward, along with the man they had known as Christian Bonns. 

“Well,” Pierce said, clapping his hands. “Isn’t this nice that we’re all here together at last?” 

“It’s all over, Pierce,” Bucky said. “You’ve been caught. You’re not getting out of this.”

“Of course I am!” Pierce replied with a laugh. “You obviously didn’t call the police, otherwise they’d be here by now.”

“I don’t understand why you kidnapped Steve,” Bucky added, desperately wishing the FBI would hurry up. 

“Simple,” Pierce replied. “I intended to torture him, then kill him for sticking his nose in where it doesn’t belong. I figured once he was dead you two would back off. But now we have your weapons so it’s just easier for us to kill you all.”

Peggy grinned. “You forgot one thing.”

“Oh?”

“Always be prepared,” she said, quickly drawing the gun she’d taken from the guard and shooting both Pierce and Rumlow in the leg. As they rolled around on the floor, bleeding and in pain, Bucky and Peggy rushed to Steve, untying him quickly. Now that they were close, they could see that his face was bruised, and he had a lump on his head as though he’d been struck hard. 

“You okay, babe?” Bucky asked softly, and Steve grinned at him through a split lip. 

“Yeah, Buck. I’m fine.”

He stood, and the three of them looked down at the men on the floor. “What should we do with them?” Peggy asked, as the vault door burst open and three men ran in. 

“FBI, nobody move!” one of the men shouted, and Bucky raised an eyebrow. 

“You guys missed all the fun!” he said, grinning. “Here are the heads of your kidnapping ring. You’re welcome.”

The FBI agents stared at the trio, who laughed before leaving, Peggy and Bucky supporting Steve between them. 

They took Steve straight to the ER to get checked over. They had a long wait ahead of them, so Bucky took the time to send a quick message to Natasha. 

_Steve’s safe. All good. Your FBI boys missed the big finale. They should have the gang in custody now though. Let us know if/when we need to make a statement._

A few moments later, his phone buzzed. 

_Thanks, Barnes. Much obliged. Glad everyone is safe. Hear you shot those guys in the legs. Good for you._

Bucky laughed to himself, shaking his head when Steve and Peggy gave him a curious look. _That was Peggy. She’s kind of a badass. You two should have coffee sometime._

After a two and a half hour wait, Steve was finally seen by a doctor. He had managed to avoid a concussion, but his ribs were bruised and one of his fingers was broken. The doctor fixed him up, and sent them away with strict instructions of no strenuous activity and a bunch of bed rest. Bucky couldn’t help but snort derisively. The likelihood of Steve obeying an order of bed rest was non existent, unless he was getting a lot of sex, which probably counted as strenuous, thus negating the whole point. 

When they got home, Bucky pulled Steve and Peggy into a three way kiss. The kiss was frantic, messy, desperate—Bucky tried to pour all of his emotions into it. The worry that Steve had been taken and they might never see him again; the relief that he was home safe. 

At length, the kiss gentled into something softer, and Bucky moaned into it.

Peggy was the first to pull back.

“Come on, Steve,” she said briskly. “Let’s get you into bed.”

“Only if you join me,” Steve said, pouting stubbornly.

Peggy sighed. “We’ll join you, but no sex. Not right now. We almost lost you and…” She trailed off, tears falling, and Steve pulled her into a hug. 

“It’s okay. I knew you guys would find me and rescue me. How did you find me?”

“Combination of factors,” Bucky said ruefully. “Luis helped a lot.”

“How did they know where I was?” Steve asked.

Peggy and Bucky exchanged a glance. “We’ll tell you everything after we’ve slept,” Bucky said at length. “Right now I need a long fucking sleep.”

“Yeah, a nap sounds good,” Steve said through a yawn.

They stripped off and snuggled down under the comforter together, Steve in the middle and the other two holding hands on his chest, mindful of his ribs. Bucky held off on sleep until he heard his lovers’ breathing deepen, then allowed himself to drift, secure in the knowledge that they were both safe.

***

Bucky’s phone was ringing. Loudly.

He cursed and reached over to grab it from the bedside table, hitting the answer button.

“What?”

_“Hey, sunshine, wakey wakey! What were you doing asleep?”_

“Hey, Natasha. We were all pretty wiped so we figured we’d take a nap. What’s up?”

_“Thought you’d be pleased to know that Pierce and Rumlow are being held by the FBI, no bail. There’s enough evidence that they’re probably going to be behind bars for a hell of a long time. Pierce probably won’t see the outside of a cell again given his age.”_

“Excellent,” Bucky said grimly.

_“Thought that’d make you happy. How’s Steve?”_

“Bruised ribs, a broken finger, and a bump on the head. He’s okay, though. No concussion or anything.”

_“Good. Tell him I say hey. We’re gonna want to talk to you guys tomorrow—when’s good for you?”_

“Say eleven a.m.? I don’t think we’re gonna be up to getting out of bed much earlier.”

_“Don’t blame you. Okay, Barnes, we’ll see you tomorrow at the office. Take care of yourselves.”_

“You too, Natasha. Bye.”

He ended the call and flopped back onto the bed.

“What did Natasha want?” Steve asked.

“To make sure you were okay and to say that the FBI want to talk to us tomorrow. Oh yeah, and apparently Pierce and Rumlow won’t be walking any time soon. They’ve got a pretty watertight case and she doesn’t think Pierce will see the outside ever again.”

“Works for me,” Peggy said. “No one messes with my partners and gets away with it.”

They kissed each other in turn, then Bucky stretched. “I’m hungry. Who wants pizza?”

Steve and Peggy raised their hands. “I’ll order,” Peggy said. “Usual?”

“Yeah, but get mine with a side of mozzarella sticks?” Bucky requested.

“Oooh, that sounds good,” Steve said. “Me too!”

Peggy rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

She got out of bed, and both Steve and Bucky followed her naked form with their eyes, before looking at each other.

“How did we get such a hot girlfriend?” Bucky said, awed.

“Beats me. You’ve always been a bit of a dork. I didn’t want to say anything, but…”

“If you weren’t injured I’d smack you,” Bucky said comfortably. “Asshole.”

“You love me.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I do.”

Steve cupped Bucky’s cheek in his hand, drawing him in for a deep kiss. “Let’s not take on any cases for a week. Let’s go for a vacation somewhere. Once Tony’s check clears.”

“Sounds like an amazing idea,” Bucky replied softly. “Can’t wait to see you all tanned from lying out in the sun.”

“Plus, bonus: Peggy in a bikini.”

Bucky groaned. “Oh my god, it’s gonna be amazing. Although I revise my plan of sex on the beach because, realistically, that shit gets everywhere and frankly I don’t want to be eating your ass and get a mouthful of sand.”

Steve burst out laughing, then moaned, holding his ribs. “Fuck, you sonofabitch, don’t make me laugh, it hurts!”

“Sorry,” Bucky said apologetically, leaning down to kiss Steve’s ribs gently. “But yeah, a vacation sounds nice. You have to call Tony tomorrow, tell him we caught the guys.”

“You don’t think I should call him tonight?”

Bucky shook his head. “He’ll want to know everything. Tonight is for us. He can wait until tomorrow.”

Steve nodded, then grinned. “He’s gonna be so confused when his maintenance guy doesn’t show up.”


	17. Epilogue

The following day was a whirlwind of activity for the trio. They allowed themselves to sleep in, then have a leisurely breakfast, but as soon as they got to the office it all started. First the FBI, wanting to go over the kidnapping and subsequent rescue with Steve, then Bucky and Peggy. Then they had to telephone Stark and let him know what had happened. As soon as Steve told him they’d been caught, Stark’s response was, “I’m on my way,” and he ended the call. 

Twenty minutes later, Stark arrived at the office, smiling wide until he saw Steve’s beat up face. “Oh my god, Steve, what happened?”

“I got a little beat up by the kidnappers when they took me. But I’m okay,” he said quickly, as Stark opened his mouth to say something. “I’m okay. Luckily I have these two to come rescue me when I’m in a bind.”

“So who was it?” Stark asked eagerly. “Tell me everything!”

The trio took it in turns telling parts of the story, missing out certain details, such as Lang’s mission and the twins’ resentment. When Bucky explained how Peggy had shot the kidnappers when they rescued Steve, Stark whooped excitedly. 

“Go Peggy! You’re amazing. I’m glad those bastards got what was coming to them.”

“They hurt Steve,” Peggy said simply. “I was just returning the favor.”

“I’m gonna write you a check right now,” Stark said, grinning. “And you deserve every penny.” He took out his checkbook and wrote one out, signing it before passing it to Steve. Steve’s eyes widened when he saw the figure. 

“This is… considerably more than we agreed,” Steve choked out. 

Stark sighed. “You risked your lives to catch these guys. Literally. That deserves a lot more hazard pay. I still can’t believe it. Chris! Or whatever his name really is. That’s it. I’m getting you guys to run any background checks I get done in the future.”

“We’d be happy to,” Steve replied, smiling. “Thank you, Tony. This is very generous.”

“I was thinking,” Tony said slowly. “Maybe you three would like to come round to dinner some time? I feel like Steve and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

Peggy and Bucky looked at Steve, who nodded, much to Bucky’s surprise. “Yeah,” Steve said. “I think I’d like that.”

“Great!” Tony said, clapping his hands gleefully. “We’ll arrange something soon. Now you three get some well deserved rest.”

“We will, Tony,” Steve replied, smiling. “Thanks.”

As soon as Tony was gone, they took the check to the bank and deposited it before going back home. 

“We still don’t know who wrote the first letter,” Steve said as they ate dinner that night. 

“You mean you haven’t figured that out?” Peggy asked dryly. “It was the twins. Remember how confused they were when we said there had been more than one?”

“Oh yeah!” Bucky said with a laugh. “Maybe we should go in and give them a gentle warning not to do anything like that again and maybe let their hatred of Tony go. After all, he’s not his father.”

“I think that sounds like a good idea,” Steve said. “Now, do we have anything for dessert?”

“I ordered it specially,” Peggy said with a grin, and took a familiar looking box out of the refrigerator. Steve and Bucky stared at it before bursting out laughing. 

The lid of the box, sitting on the middle of the table, proudly proclaimed, “Polly’s Pies”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we’re done! Thank you to everyone who read this—it’s the longest fic I’ve ever written and it was a joy to write. 
> 
> For anyone wondering, the pie was banoffee. :D
> 
> Come find me on tumblr where I am also velvetjinx!


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